Good afternoon, everyone!
At the entrance of Vila do Conde there's a street with a few abandoned houses. On the wall of one of them I encountered a sad Pluto sighing about life. I took out my camera to grab a shot...
This is my entry for the CCC's Street Art Contest #146, hosted by 
Poor Pluto was all alone, guarding this big old abandoned house on a deserted street. There were no people walking by. Not even a car passing.
No wonder Pluto was so sad. 😑
I wonder why this kind of houses are left abandoned for so long, until the point the walls and ceiling start collapsing, making them impossible to restore or salvage.
The only option is to demolish the house and build a new one... however, the government implemented laws saying that owners can't demolish their buildings. 😂
So, what happens? The owners must wait for decades... maybe even centuries for the houses to become so degraded that the city hall is forced to demolish them themselves to prevent accidents from happening.
Only after all of that... the property owner can build something new. 🤦♂️
These laws seem kind of dumb to me. But hey, dumb laws is the government's specialty! 🤣🤣🤣
The only people who get something out of these scenarios are the street artists who get some extra canvases for their works. Since no one lives in these places, there's no one to complain about it! And no incentive for the owners to clean them up, too. 😎
This makes them the perfect spots for wannabe artists to practice and improve their skills...
That's why most of these abandoned places are full of simple drawings such as this one:
The exterior walls of the house were a total mess. One can't even call it drawings. Just a collection of ugly scribbles and random letters.
After taking these shots I realised the main gate and door of the house were open. I saw no one around and the curiosity got the best of me. 🐈
I pushed the gate and got in the yard...
I went up to the main door and - carefully, with very silent steps - I went in...
As you can see, the interior of the house was full of debris and trash. Most of the ceilings... were on the floor. 🤨
The floors were in no better shape, full of holes and almost collapsing.
Homeless people and junkies usually take over these places and make it their "homes". That's why I was so careful while entering... I thought I would come across with some dangerous folks.
However, the place was deserted. No one seems to use this space.
Right next to that large house, there were a couple more empty buildings... one of them was a set apartments! What a waste!!! 😲
The other was an individual house with 2 floors. Now it just looks ugly... still, it seems to be an expensive property.
The bottom floor appears to have been used as a store... I guess the owner went bankrupt at some point. Not surprising since in the whole street I haven't saw a single inhabited house. To whom would they sell? 🙃
I hope you enjoyed this article and my photos. See you next time!
| Location | Vila do Conde - Portugal |
| Camera | Panasonic Lumix DC-TZ90 |
| Photos | 12 (Edited with GIMP) |
If you want to to participate, here's the link again: CCC's Street Art Contest #146