Forbidden Places: Exploring Our Abandoned Heritage

by Sylvain Margaine

Head off to explore the filming location of 12 Monkeys, Michael Jackson€™s hometown turned ghost town, Berlin€™s 1936 Olympic Village, deconsecrated churches, forgotten castles, deserted train stations, prisons and mental asylums, a cemetery of rusted locomotives, abandoned steel factories, phantom metro stations, and more.For 10 years, Sylvain Margaine has traveled the world in search of these forbidden and forgotten places.  An exceptional photographic report.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Art, Architecture

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[John M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a companion piece to a much more interesting and better written website. While it presents pictures of abandoned sites in Europe and North America, it lacks the in-depth backstories and interesting facts about the buildings it features that one would expect from a book like this.

[Koen · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Forbidden Places, exploring our abandoned heritage” is the first volume of three by Sylvian and David Margaine. The photographs are made by Sylvian and the texts are made by David.
ISBN number: 978-2-9158-0782-0.
Layout by Stéphanie Benoit
Translation by Caroline Lawrence.
Editing-correction by Kimberly Bess.
Publisher is JonGlez and registration of copyright is October 2015, edition 02.
The book contains 256 pages and 350 photographs.

According to the description on the back of the book, Sylvian Margaine has travelled for ten years over the world in search of these forbidden and forgotten places.

The list of places is very extensive and contains deconsecrated churches, forgotten castles, deserted train stations, prisons and mental asylums, a cemetery of rusted locomotives, abandoned steel factories, phantom metro stations and more.

I really enjoyed reading this book, the photographs are marvellous and the texts are kind of poetic at times.
As I’ve also read from other reviews, a more extensive description about the locations could be seen as an improvement of the book. Personally, I would like to know more about the architect, the architecture and a description of special items of interest (like wallpaper, staircases, woodcarving, masonry, garden design, etc).

Also, worth to mention is that the photographs and the texts invoke a feeling of Halloween. It is a kind of spooky at times while reading.

What I’ve also enjoyed, was the variety of different countries Sylvian visited:
• Germany.
• Belgium.
• Channel Islands.
• France.
• England.
• Spain.
• United States.
• The Netherlands.
• Luxembourg.

My favourite Forbidden Places:
• Locomotive Graveyard, Belgium.
• Canfranc Station, Canfranc, Arargon, Spain.
• Val Saint Lambert Crystal Glass Works, Seraing, Liège region, Belgium.
• Twelve Monkeys Power Plant, Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
• 1936 Olympic Village, Wustermark, Brandenburg, Germany.
• Varia Cinema-Theatre, Jumet, Hainaut province, Belgium.
• Villa Sainte Marie, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

My choice is of course based on a very subjective opinion; however, I think that in this book places can be found for everyone. For me I’m rating this book (which I’ve got as a father’s day gift) 4 stars. Enjoy the photographs and the texts.

In the same series:
• Forbidden Places, Volume 2.
• Forbidden Places, Volume 3.
• Chernobyl’s Atomic Legacy.
• Abandoned America.
• Abandoned Japan.

[Richard Gombert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like looking at photos of abandoned places. This book is interesting because most of the buildings are out side of the US.
However, I don't feel like the photography is as good artistically as some other books in this genre.

[Stéphanie Amesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantastic photos of amazing places, but I would have appreciated a little more background on the various locations.

[S46354595 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not expect this author to be so poetic about it all. I was only really expecting creepy pictures of abandoned places. Highly recommend. Will make you feel like you’re being watched by a ghost and give you a fear of old, probably haunted buildings you never had before. Is it weird that I still want to visit these places? Especially the castles and that one abandoned theater. I bet they looked stunning 200 years ago.

[Kathleen Messmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book gave me the bug for exploration of the places that have been tossed aside by society. It’s sad really that we have lost respect for our own history. Read it.