THE URBAN EXPLORER

Welcome to The Urban Explorer blog! We have stories about urban exploration from around the world, from interesting public places to hidden, exploded bunkers with rebar pointing all the wrong ways.

More urban exploration-related articles:

Train car in the forest
As I visiting Vihti anyway, I also wanted to see something abandoned, something not likely to have other people. I found an abandoned railway car in the middle of the forest.
Full story

April 2020, Hylätty junanvaunu, Vihti, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Vehicles)

Stockmann in trouble 100 years ago and now
100 years ago, Frans Stockmann (Nov 1920) and his wife (Apr 1919) died in Spanish Flu. Their house project in Kauniainen was left unfinished, and remains as ruins in the forest. Today, in April 2020, lack of sales due to the Coronavirus, the famous Stockmann department store has applied for protection from its creditors ("yrityssaneeraus" in Finnish, roughly equivalent to Chapter 11 in US).
Full story

April 2020, Stockmannin rauniot, Kauniainen, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Buildings, Ruins)

Abandoned watchtower on Golan Heights
One particularly interesting thing about Mount Hermon were the military installations. Many of them. in active use, but also many that had been abandoned or that lay in ruins.
Full story

February 2020, Abandoned watchtower, Mount Hermon, Israel
Urban-Exploration (Towers, Military); Skiing (Outdoor, Snow, Lifts)

Abandoned bunker on Golan Heights
What a shitty bunker! Literally.
Full story

February 2020, Abandoned bunker, Mount Hermon, Israel
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made)

Re-visiting the Vienna flak towers
​I was in Vienna already in 2018, but for 2020 Janne and I toured the Vienna museums befor e heading to the ski resorts in Austrian alps. This allowed a new visit to Haus des Meeres, the refurbished bunker-turned-into-and-aquarium, and visits to three other bunkers.
Full story
(TGR version)

January 2020, Haus des Meeres, Esterhazypark, Vienna, Austria; Flakturm Stiftskaserne, Vienna, Austria; Feuerleit Flakturm Arenbergpark, Vienna, Austria; Flakturm Arenbergpark, Vienna, Austria
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers, Military); Caving (Man-Made)

Kugelbunker
At the Vienna museum of military history (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum ), we saw a funny "kugelbunker", a concrete boulder for one person shelter from the world war times.
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January 2020, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna, Austria
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers)

Nobel's blasting tunnels
This seemed like a good time of the year to go explore the start of Nobel industries in Vinterviken. Bunkers, tunnels, testing grounds, and simple factory buildings.
Full story

December 2019, Nobel blasting tunnels, Vinterviken, Stockholm, Sweden
Urban-Exploration (Tunnels, Historic); Caving (Man-Made)

Seah Im Bunker
Once my meeting ended, I wanted to use the couple of hours I had for exploration, and got Tero to join me. I've already covered the Singapore caves and skiing... what remained was bunkers!
Full story
(TGR version)

November 2019, Seah Im Bunker, Keppel Hill, Singapore, Singapore
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made)

Moon over the missile base
I felt the urge to visit odd places, and an old Nike missile base seemed to fit the bill. But, I was quickly losing light on the only day that I could do this. Then the shortcut turned out to be non-passable, and the short hike turned into a 8-kilometre trek on steep hills. In darkness. And, somebody had removed the ruins. Trip ruined? Not quite, the moon and the sea were wonderful in the darkness.
Full story
(TGR version)

October 2019, Nike missile site SF-51, San Francisco, California, USA
Urban-Exploration (Ruins, Military)

Dungeons of Castle Eger
Janne and I visited Castle Eger in Hungary (Egri Vár in Hungarian). I loved the sign, "no ballet dancing on the top of the walls"?
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August 2019, Castle Eger, Eger, Hungary
History; Urban-Exploration (Tunnels)

Afternoon swim at the abandoned underground submarine base
It is always nice to dip in to sea for a swim. Even if you're visiting an abandoned underground submarine base.
Full story
(TGR version)

August 2019, Ex. Yugoslavian military shelter for submarines, Rogačić, Vis, Croatia
Urban-Exploration (Tunnels, Bunkers, Harbours); Swimming (Indoor, Outdoor, Underground, Water, Waterbody-Sea, Waterbody-Other)

Military tunnels deep inside Mali Hum
The taxi drivers are a great information source. This time I asked about a hole in a cliff face, and got all the information I needed to visit it later. And it should be a safe place to go to...
Full story
(TGR version)

August 2019, Mali Hum Tunnels, Vis, Croatia
Caving (Man-Made); Urban-Exploration (Tunnels, Bunkers)

Siuntio bunker tips from Dutch tourists
Having researched the locations of the Russian bunkers in Porkkala for years, I was surprised to learn the location of another bunker from Dutch tourists on their first day of visiting Finland. They pointed us to a small bunker few hundred meters from the large one we had visited earlier, based on their geocaching explorations.
Full story

August 2019, Siuntion täytetty pikkubunkkeri, Siuntio, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made)

Hiking to the abandoned missile base
The base is not easy to find; there's a lot of tours on sale to visit the military wonders of Vis, but little actual information. I discovered the location of the base by looking at Google Maps satellite photos, but the Secret Croatia blog also helped...
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August 2019, Vis missile base, Vis, Croatia
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made)

Labirintus Lost in Count Dracula's Prison
A maze of caves and underground prison cells, cages, darkness, fog, and Dracula? Sign me up please!
Full story
(TGR version)

July 2019, Labirintus, Budapest, Hungary
Caving (Man-Made, Rock); Urban-Exploration (Tunnels, Prisons)

Hunting for the Sarfvik Secrets
I went on a long bike trip today with Jarmo, to explore the Sarfvik area in Kirkkonummi. This large area of farms, forests and seafront is blocked for public road access by the local residents. Why? You can still explore the area on foot, but the walks are long. But in the summer biking is an option.
Full story
(TGR version)
(Suomenkielinen versio)

July 2019, Abramsbyn bunkkeri, Sarfvik, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Golfkentän pieni siirtolohkareluola, Sarfvik, Kirkkonummi, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made, Rock)

This is the 4th set of articles. The previous sets were set 1, set 2, and set 3. The next sets are set 5, set 6, set 7, set 8, set 9, set 10, and set 11.

The Urban Explorer articles appeared originally in the Blogspot Planetskier series, at TGR posts, or at the Relaa website. See also the articles about skiing, climbing, cycling, caving, flying, swimming, and saunas.