This was the first abandoned porcelain factory that we ever explored. It was the fifth day of our summer vacation 2018, and we had decided to check out two abandoned porcelain factories that were roughly in the area. Roughly in the area meaning that from the place where we had spent the night, we still had to drive more than 150 kilometers to the first location.
It was a hot summer day (just like every summer day that year was a hot day), and the sun was burning down as we arrived at the old factory. There was something like a public parking spot not too far away, from which we could see the wide open gate that would lead us onto the premises. Pretty close was a neighbor with a lawnmower going in straight lines back and forth, so that when we went into the direction of the factory, he might see us upon entering, so we stayed out of sight while getting our gear ready, when suddenly a large truck pulled up and parked right between us and the factory gate...
We waited what would happen. There was nothing written on the side of the truck, so we couldn't see if maybe the guy even had something to do with the old factory or was just there to take a break and have lunch. Well, I went up to him and asked him if he knew anything about the factory. He said that he didn't and was in fact just having lunch. Whew! So we wouldn't be bothered by him, leaving only one challenge - evading the neighbor.
So as the neighbor had finished one row of mowing and had just disappeared behind his house, we hurriedly walked past the truck and through the gate to be able to disappear behind some high bushes in the factory's courtyard. It worked nicely. We just needed some time to find a way in, because a lot of the doors and windows were nailed shut
When we had finally discovered an open access, we first found ourselves in the workers' locker room. The smell of old shoes and clothes was still in the air as I unpacked and set up my camera. Starting in the locker room, we tried to find a good way through the various parts of the building, but the place was somehow contorted, so it was hard to find "the" correct way, and we were frequently entering rooms that we had passed already.
The place was pretty big, and there were so many scenes to be shot! Some rooms and halls looked as if they'd only be abandoned for a short while, whereas others displayed incredibly colorful decay that supported that fact that the place had been abandoned for more than twenty years. It also surprised us that there was relatively little vandalism and graffiti - not that we would complain about that!
I don't think that we've seen everything that this place has to offer, but we still had the second porcelain factory on our list, so when we thought that we'd explored most of the place, we called it a day and went back to the car to drive the 100 kilometers to the next location - 100 kilometers that turned out to be longer than we thought due to construction work and detours en route...so stay tuned for the report of the adventure that followed...
To find out about the history of this place and to check out all the photos, click the button below.
Amazing work!
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