Thursday, April 24, 2014

Abandoned Places: Vulture Bunker

Travelling back to the Bay of Puck in Poland (remember the torpedo testing base?), we find another World War II era military installation. The Bay of Puck is formed by the Hel peninsula, a sand bar with delusions of grandeur. It actually plays host to several towns and is a popular tourist destination despite the fact that there are times that the peninsula becomes an island, unattached to the rest of Poland. However, it was of strategic importance during World War II, so the Nazis fortified the sucker with the Vulture bunker. Or series of bunkers. Basically, as soon as Germany took Poland, they fortified Hel with these bunkers -- the walls very from four to ten feet thick -- and construction on them was finished in 1939. The bunkers never saw combat.

After World War II, the Polish military put the bunkers to some use, but, at this point, they've mostly been empty and unused for decades.
Photos by Tomasz Jakubowski and used under the linked license.

Your bonus photos today are various abandoned houses in Virginia:
The "Dump House":
The "House of Five Black Doors":
And a church house (okay, a church, so a House of God):

21 comments:

  1. The abandoned houses in Virginia look like something from a horror novel. I have to wonder why they haven't been condemned and torn down.

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  2. "a sandbar with delusions of grandeur" - haha! Those abandoned houses are crying out to be the setting of a horror story. Great pics!

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  3. There is no shortage of abandoned houses here in the South, that's for sure. Sad, that church looks like it's still in decent shape.

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  4. The Black Doors house looks like it was a nice place once.

    I am familiar with bunkers, there were a few built in England at the same time. Think there were quite a few on the French coasts too.

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  5. Aw the poor bunkers never got a war.

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  6. I'd hate to go against that bunker. Good thing the European theater ended before that had to be used. :)

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  7. "The House of Five Black Doors" is that the actual title of the house? So interesting!

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  8. Bunkers! I wonder if the Archie Bunker family could stake claim to any of them.

    That's me, struggling to think of a comment.

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  9. Anne: That I couldn't tell you. I suppose someone actually owns them rather than them having been foreclosed on? Or, maybe, since no one has wanted to buy the land, they've just left the houses sitting?

    Lexa: I think the house with six black doors is a good candidate.

    Rajiv: It's the kind of thing I would have loved to have found as a kid.

    Alex C: Well, when the pictures were taken, anyway. Who can say about now?

    Jo: The only kind of bunkers we tend to have here are nuke shelters. And, by here, I don't mean -here-, but they were around where I grew up.

    Pat: I wonder how it feels about that?

    David: I wonder how many did get used...

    Jennifer: I think it's just what the photographer called it, but I don't actually know.

    Rusty: This is me struggling to respond to your struggle...

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  10. Wow. So weird that it's sometimes an island, sometimes not. I can't imagine living somewhere that changes like that!

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  11. I think it's neat that the bunkers are still there.

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  12. Stephanie: I know! It would freak me right out.

    Chrys: It is. I want to explore.

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  13. "A sandbar with delusions of grandeur" may be the best description I've read all year.

    The bunker is creepy looking--another good horror movie location.

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  14. Jeanne: heh
    I'm glad you liked it.

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  15. -The bunkers on the sandbar don't look friendly at all. I guess they shouldn't though.
    -I did not see five black doors. They looked white to me. Oh, but I can see 4 inside that are black.
    -Loved the picture with the vines all around the window opening in the church.
    -These are all great. I look forward to each post, though I have to go back and read a few I've missed.

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  16. Whenever I need fodder for a solid horror story, I'm coming back to these posts. Man, "The House of Five Black Doors" sounds like a scary flick already!

    WriterlySam
    Echoes of Olympus
    A to Z #TeamDamyanti


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  17. Donna: I think the bunker looks like the playground I never had.

    Samantha: It's certainly a title that needs a story.

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  18. The bunkers? Why in the world isn't someone using those? I would love to have a bunker! Show me the bunker!

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  19. I love the name "House of Five Black Doors".... sounds like something that you could easily work into your House on the Corner series. ;)

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  20. RG: You have to go to Poland...

    Alex H: Oh... um...
    darn... ideas...

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