There are these old gasometers, I regurarely see on my drives from the city back home, becouse their tops are visible from the bypass road I usually take.
One morning in April last year, I left the main bypass road and took the narrow one that leads to the gasometers. It was time to explore a bit that quite mundane but also kinda mysterious area I never thoroughly explored through the lens of my camera.
The gasometers and the nearby abandoned buildings from the Austro-Hungarian period of the city were built and ready to use in 1912.
The works started four years earlier, in 1908.
It was a period of rapid growth of the city due to its strategic importance in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and a time of global technological advancements, so quite a few big infrastructural projects were realized in those years.
Nowadays, the old gasworks complex is surrounded by small agricultural fields.
When I peeked through a broken window of one of its abandoned buildings ...
... I saw a room filled with small wooden crates used in harvest time.
I love exploring these quiet, disheveled environments.
The main attraction here is the gasometers, of course.
They are huge, rusty, and kinda cool.
Definitely different from anything around them.
Some details of this old industrial stuff feel quite decorative today.
This intricate lace-like structure looks amazing when separated from the rest through the lens of the camera.
Here you can see the thing that was once showing the pressure inside the tank. Or at least, that's what I think this thing was. It's another cool detail, that's for sure.
That same thing on the second gasometer looks much better, more sophisticated. The first one looks kinda improvised in comparison.
This one is probably the original. It looks stylistically more in line with the rest of the structure.
Here you can see a bunch of flowers, for a change.
Some daffodils ...
... were growing on the lawn near the rusty gasometers.
I don't remember seeing many flowers that day.
The most numerous ones ...
... were these grape hyacinths.
They appear very early in spring here in my area.
The scientific name of the species is Muscari neglectum. Do you know why I wrote the scientific name here? Well, I wrote it just becouse ...
... I didn't know what else to write. The scientific name of this plant is completely irrelevant for this post.
Here you can see an old villa from the same period as the gasometers.
The villa is situated about a hundred meters from the gasometers.
This old building is in much better shape than the others in that area around the gasometers.
The plants aren't the main protagonists of the post, but they are quite prominent. Here you can see some rusty industrial piece of something surrounded by juicy green grass covered with dew.
Ivy and another climbing plant that I wasn't able to identify almost entirely covered the building shown in this photograph. The same unidentified climbing plant ...
... which may or may not be the Clematis vitalba ...
... is abundantly present on one of the two gasometers as well.
The green and the rusty look pretty good together.
Here you can see another abandoned building that coexists with the ivy, although the ivy isn't that abundant in this case.
This shot shows the dry, leafless branches of ivy or some other climbing plant coming out of a small, round hole that looks like one of those things for bathroom ventilation.
I think I see a fan in there, so, yeah, it was probably related to ventilation.
The dry creeping plant looks a bit creepy; with a bit of imagination ...
... one could easily see in it a monster of sorts that's coming out of a hole.
Here you can see some more ivy ...
... above the decaying wooden door of one of those abandoned buildings.
This wide shot shows a bit more of the scenery with the decaying old buildings forming what looks like a small alley. In the following photograph ...
... the focus is on the humid moss on the stairs of one of those buildings.
Here you can see two lovely broken windows ...
... surrounded by the lush foliage of the climbing plants. The shape formed by those plants resembles some kind of curtains.
I felt particularly inspired by the windows that day ...
... so I photographed quite a few of them.
Here you can see three fairly elegant windows ...
... on a very ruined building that has lost its roof. Through the powerful zoom of my Canon PowerShot SX60 ...
... I was able to catch a pigeon on that same building.
This is the only animal in today's post.
Yeah, I was kinda obsessed with windows that day.
These other three belong to the same building.
If they were brand new, they would be completely equal. The decay has created small differences that make the scene more interesting in a way.
Here you can see a trio of windows from another building.
In this shot, I zoomed in on the rusted bars and partially cracked glass of one of those windows.
Here you can see three circular windows, for a change. Each one is in a slightly different state of decay. In the following photograph ...
... the focus is on only one of those three rounded windows.
Here you can see some windows framed by two trees abundantly covered with ivy.
This photograph shows two more windows changed by the decay. The following shot ...
... shows two doors and a window.
It seems that someone's watching you from that window. It's just a poster, but ...
... but posters can feel strangely alive in eerie, abandoned spaces.
This is a detail from one of those two doors, while the following photograph ...
... is a portrait of that same door.
Here you can see one of the three entrances ...
... in this old building.
This is the same building seen through the grid of the fence
that prevents you from getting really close to it.
Here you can see the creeping Clematis vitalba climbing that fence. In the following photograph ...
... the focus is again on the main protagonists of this post ...
... the old, rusted gasometers.
Very close to that decaying stuff ...
... there is one renovated building in which people still live. It has a couple of apartments with a couple of local families. That single building feels like a miniature isolated neiberhood surrounded by industrial history.
There is a small, improvised football field ...
... behind the nearest abandoned building ...
... a place for the local kids.
This is the mighty Thor from the garden of that house that is still inhabited.
This pool of dirty water, situated near one of the abandoned buildings, was probably once a part of some industrial structure connected with the gasometers.
Here you can see one of quite a few mysterious rusted pieces scattered across the fields and lawns between the buildings.
This is the portrait of one of those buildings. I mean, the entire building is present in the picture, not just windows or other details like in some of the previous shots I presented earlier in the post.
This is the nearby building. This one is also shown in its entirety.
This segment of the post is dedicated to entire buildings. You can see yet another one here.
This is the last one shown in that manner.
Here you can see a bit of its interior.
In this photograph, the focus is on the interior part of the rooftop.
Here you can see a watering bucket that still looks like it might be useful.
I was peeking through a broken window to get these interior shots.
Here you can see one of the doors of that same building. The following photograph ...
... shows the building from a different angle.
This is another building, and in the following photograph ...
... you can take a peek at its interior.
These are the gasometers again. You can also see one of the nearby trees in the picture.
Here, I zoomed in on the strange, barren, downwards-looking branches of that partially damaged tree.
This photograph shows the gasometers from a different angle.
These stairs look pretty cool against the backdrop of the sky.
Here is a building that lacks a roof, so its interior isn't much of an interior anymore.
This photograph shows the rusted remains of some machine atached to the wall.
Here, I zoomed in a bit more on that thing.
These windows belong to the same building.
Here you can see the large entrance of that same ruin, and a nearby building in the background.
This photograph shows the remains of something made of concrete.
Here you can see yet another lovely piece of relatively photogenic garbage.
Here you can see some houses from the suburban neiberhood situated a litlle less than a kilometer from the gasometers.
And that's it. This last shot shows the gasometers very early in the morning. The post ends here - THE END.
AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.
