Urban Photographer Roman Robroek Spent 5 Years Scouring The Continent For The Grandest Examples Of Forgotten Architectural Beauty

A room with a view in Italy.

Dutch photographer Roman Robroek captures some of the most hauntingly beautiful spaces in pristine detail using only natural light. Roman’s fascination with these modern day ruins began along with his career in urban photography. Throughout his travels photographing buildings, he’d inevitably stumble across a great number of abandoned structures, many of them impressive in scope and size.

This environmental factor would become the subject of great curiosity for Roman. He began to wonder about the people who lived there – what their stories were and why they left. These images represent a longing look through the veil of time, leaving it up to the viewer to create the narrative for the thousands of stories that have unfolded. These spaces carry history beyond the grasp of modern memory, and the sheer opulence of many of them takes us to the same space of mystery and wonder that attracted Roman to these decaying relics of a bygone era.

More: Roman Robroek, Instagram, Facebook

A miniature snooker table was left in this house in France:

This grand Italian house would require careful renovation:

Comfy but not cosy. An abandoned Italian living room:

A medieval Italian castle transformed into an oriental palace:

This French staircase retains its charm:

A heroic house in Italy:

Watch your step on this Polish spiral staircase:

A piano abandoned in a house in Poland:

Books litter this huge house in Germany:

A palatial French bedroom:

In Poland, seemingly, they always leave the piano:

An elegant wood-panelled lobby in Belgium:

A more curvaceous creation in Belgium:

Light floods into this Italian palace:

Grandeur turned to rubble in Italy:

This Italian one, on the other hand:

No one makes grand entrances in this French property any more: