Hi there my Hivean friends and followers!
This is my very first contribution to the Urban Exploration community. I haven´t really been into this adventurous activity and it was actually more of a coincidence than a planned act what brought us to the ruins of once majestic building that this post will be dedicated to.
Let me start out with a bit of history and some facts. The building is called Monte Palace and it used to be a large luxury hotel. Built in the late 1980s, the hotel (now just the ruins of it) can be found on a rim of an extinct volcano just above the picturesque little town of Sete Cidades on the Azores Island of Sao Miguel, Portugal.
When the hotel was opened in 1989, it boasted 88 well equipped and beautifully decorated rooms, two restaurants, bar, night club, bank and some more amenities. Unfortunately for the owners, however, back then, the Azores Islands were just an unknown, remote archipelago somewhere in the North Atlantic and the hotel simply didn´t get enough customers. Therefore, just 18 months after the grand opening, the owners of the hotel declared bankruptcy and the hotel was closed.
For a couple of years following the closure, the hotel was guarded by a security with aggressive dogs so it was impossible for anyone to get it but when the owners stopped paying the security, they left and the hotel was left at the mercy of raiders. Soon, everything valuable was stolen and the hotel fell into disrepair. These days, it´s pretty much just a massive, eerie skeleton of what once used to be a grandiose and lavish building.
As I already said, I am not really into urbex as I prefer exploring natural sites full of life but I believe the ruins of the Monte Palace Hotel must be a true hotspot for all urbex enthusiasts and I think the following 25 photos that I took there will do justice to the claim.
Let´s start out from the outside.
This is a zoomed in shot of what probably was the main sign with name of the hotel. Most of the letters are already missing...
Two more exterior photos.
As you can see, the building looks quite creepy even from the outside as it has been taken over by the lush Azorean vegetation. On the walls of the building, there are signs like this one...
...but the concrete skeleton of the building is still solid enough for some (very careful though) exploration so let´s go in.
Here we are in the central hall. It´s getting spookier with every step.
We see a staircase so we are venturing up.
I cannot help but stare at the ghostly lobby from every floor.
Our anxiety was growing every minute but we decided to check out some of the rooms too.
Some of the rooms had views facing the dense forests surrounding the hotel.
While others offered breathtaking panoramas of the volcanic lakes of Sete Cidades. In spite of all the eeriness and dark atmosphere of the place, I could still imagine how excited the guests must have been about those incredible views when I was standing on the ruins of the balcony.
On our way back, I just clicked these two shots of the crumbling roof and then hurried out of the building.
So that was it. My very first urbex adventure. I don´t know how spooky this place would be for experienced urbex fans but for me, it was damn spooky! I don´t know why but during the whole time when I was in the building, I couldn´t help but think of the Overlook Hotel from the iconic Kubrick´s horror The Shining. Then, when reading internet articles about the Monte Palace Hotel and its history, I found one that says that the ruins of the hotel were actually used as a setting for some horror movies indeed...
I hope this post didn´t frighten you too much guys. Next time, I will come up with some nice and peaceful landscape shots as usually, I promise :)
This post was created by me for the Hive blockchain exclusively. All rights reserved.
Great stuff! I have heard of this old relic on the Azores from some time ago. Did you go with someone, I notice you said 'we' once?
It's a lot scarier on your own, I can assure you. I try not to solo too often these days and go with another dude who's even more into it than me.
Thank you so much :) It was my first urbex post and I didn´t want to disappoint you guys so I am really happy to get such a positive feedback from you and @grindle.
Yes, I was there with my @liltammy and there were actually a few more people exploring the building when we were there but it´s so large that you mostly just hear the voices and don´t even see the people. I bet solo urbexing must be super scary. Especially on cloudy/foggy days... No thank you :D
I hope you can do some more, get a few under your belt and you will have the bug. You do get used to the bad feeling and learn how to suppress it after a while. I have done a few large one's solo, but I can only do around an hour and then have to leave.
If there are others in there, I assume they are other explorers. It is getting very popular over here.
It was definitely an interesting experience for me. Maybe I will give it another shot when I get a chance. I am sure there are sites even much more scary than this one. You have probably visited such urbex places yourself... Anyway, thanks for your encouraging words and support :)
That’s one big behemoth of a building, such an idyllic setting ( bit to far fir me though which is a shame). Some great graffiti captured, and great internal and external snapshots.
Welcome to Urbex!!!
Wow, thank you so much! It means a lot coming from such an urbex expert :) It was a very interesting experience for me.
Thank you for your compliment, tbh I spend far too much time in old buildings 😂
I’m glad you enjoyed it, and hope you do some more, graveyards and graffiti are cool too.
Haha I can imagine it´s pretty easy to get hooked on this hobby :) Yeah, graffiti is cool, I have published a bunch of posts dedicated to amazing street art, mostly from Latin America, which is a true graffiti mecca.
Sounds amazing I have done a lot mostly in the U.K. And Russia I love it saw a programme about Columbia and the home village of Escobar that was so cool
Oh yeah, Colombia is very famous for its street art. Here is something from Bogota: part 1, part 2. But it was on the Mexican island of Holbox where I have seen the most impressive graffiti so far :)
Thanks for those links, simply stunning I am envious
Massive tremendous brilliant post!!💪👏
Děkuju. Nebýt tebe, nikdy bychom se tam nedostali :*
Pusu na to 😘
Loving this post! I could totally feel how you felt inside there.. I would probably be super curious and wanting to explore the whole building while at the same time feel as if something would scare the sh*t out of me lol. I have a friend who goes on trips solely for this purpose to take pictures and I told her she'd join hive for those pictures as she has so many but she hasn't listened (yet). I will show her this post maybe it helps haha.
Hope you will share more of these in the future :)
It would be really great if you could bring your friend over here :) I am sure the Hivean urbex community would take a good care of her and her content :)
Thanks for stopping by my post!
To be honest, I'm not afraid of how spooky it seems, but what I am afraid of is that it might have an earthquake anytime and it might colapse on you! Hahaha! 😂 Maybe because earthquake shakes us often that's why I'm more afraid of it more than anything. But I love the overlooking view of the extinct volcano. It's very lovely out there. It's a waste that it wasn't develop into anything else. 😢 They could have developed it into a museum or an office perhaps?!? 🙄
Anyway, thank you for sharing this. I enjoyed viewing it. 😊
Have a great day @phortun! 😊
Actually, earthquakes are pretty common on the island (like with most volcanic islands I guess) but that was something I didn´t even think about when I was there, fortunately :D Yeah, it must have been sad to watch such a majestic and beautiful building turning into ruins. Honestly, I doubt they will ever try to save it or reuse it. It will probably just keep falling apart...
Hahaha! 😂 Had you thought about earthquake, surely you would not dare to stay long there. Hehehe. 🤪
That's so sad. We have here an old, abandoned building too, but just very recently the government has renovated it and turned it into a hospital. At least it didn't turn it into waste. 😊
Really great post. There is a place near my neighborhood. I guess I will edit an post about it. I hope it won't be scary for me.
Cool :) I was happy to inspire you. Good luck and make sure to post it in the urbex community that can appreciate such posts ;)
It was once a great hotel, as it seems from the photos. But nature gradually kills the construction. Luckily it can still be named an Art Gallery. Here in Bulgaria there are some old monuments and buildings which look similar from inside.
Well, I wouldn´t say that nature kills the construction. It just reclaims what was once hers :)
You have a point here.
Best wishes!
Urban exploration is becoming more and more popular. Your post is a great presentation of it.
I am thinking in my minds where could I find such place in vicinity... There was a place near to my neighbourhood but it was renovated few years ago. I will have to think further and hope to find one, or not as it should be scary :)
Quality should be rewarded!
@tipu curate 3
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 7/28)
Haha I think urbex in general is nothing for the faint hearted :) I have a very vivid imagination and I could see flashbacks from various horror movies everywere :D
Thanks for the TipU curation my friend, much appreciated!
Vypadá to tam podobně jako v našich opuštěných stavbách. Vše, co mohlo zmizet, už zmizelo. To v některých zemích jsou opuštěné budovy podstatně zachovalejší. Skelet budovy zdá se být ještě stabilní. Občas může něco spadnout ze stropu...
Občas něco takového opatrně navštívím. Leckde bývají dochované dobové artefakty a dýchá z nich historie.
Rozhodně však nebývá dobré vstupovat do podobných objektů osamoceně. Ať už kvůli prostředí nebo kvůli případným obyvatelům nevalné úrovně :)
Rád jsem si prohlédl zajímavé fotky.
!BEER
Díky, jsem rád, že se post líbil :) Tenhle druh "turismu", kdy lidé prozkoumávají staré opuštěné budovy, se nazývá urbex. V komunitě, kam jsem tento post vložil, je podobných článků plno. Příště tam můžeš taky zkusit něco postnout - je tam dost lidí, kteří to fakt ocení ;)
Díky za tip. Opuštěných míst mám nafoceno dostatek ;)
That's awesome, my kind of place - derelict and overtaken by nature. And the views - truly stunning. Great scout!
Thank you so much, I am really happy about the feedback I am getting on this one :)
It's a shame to see such a recent building already run down and abandoned. The graffiti artists have been busy, but I guess the structure must be mostly okay. Will you be doing more of this?
Yes, it´s been abandoned for just a few decades so I think the core structure must be still quite solid. It will take some time before it collapses or something... Will I do more of this? I don´t know. I didn´t feel very comfortable when I was inside to be honest but at the same, you are curious and want to see more of it :D It was strange.
What a shame to see it go like that such a beautiful spot with beautiful nature landscape views well it's become a practice haven for the graffiti artist , i do love walking through abandon building and knowing why it ended up that way
great find 👍
Thank you my friend :) Well, given the unique location of the building (in the middle of lush forests), I am pretty sure nature will take it over completely one day... Just reclaiming what was originally hers though ;)
This will certainly be the case in the near future nature has it's ways 😊
Woah! This place looks like it would be amazing to explore! I often do portraits on my urban explorations and would have a lot of fun here. Welcome to the community!
Now that´s interesting, I have never thought of urbex places as settings for portrait photography but why not :)
Pretty cool! I love it, seems like a very interesting and eerie exploration 🙂
It must have been a nice hotel a the time and that view from the balcony is great.
Thanks :) Eerie but interesting indeed :D
Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Daily Travel Digest #888.
Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!
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Woow, it´s been a while since I made it to your Top 3 last time :) Thank you so much guys, I really appreciate it!
You're welcome @phortun! It was well deserved! Keep up the good work 👍
Wow! I can't imagine this hotel in its good time, I think its design is ugly hehehe and its destiny was to be abandoned ... Very good post @phortun!
Haha it´s weird but I cannot find any photos of what the hotel actually looked when it was still in use :D Maybe you are right about its destiny.
This is freaking cool man! Makes me want to find some abandoned places as well! :D
Awesome post!
Thanks man! This was my very first urbex post (and urbex adventure too actually :D) and I was really curious about the feedback it would get and I must say I am totally amazed... So many comments and upvotes from so many people. It really turned out great and I am happy about it :)
Wow, these are the great stuffs. Scary but wonderful to explore.
The hallway photographs remind me of my hostel. That looked exactly the same way. This is a beautiful post. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for your feedback buddy, I am glad you enjoyed the photos :) I just hope your hostel looked a bit better than this :D
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Heyyy buddy :) Thanks for such nice words, I am glad you enjoyed this post. Well, with all the crazy stuff happening on Steem, I felt like it was time to say goodbye over there. Good to hear you came to the same conclusion. I believe Hive has a huge potential so I have been constantly working on increasing my HP. Also, I have been constantly expanding the list of authors that I support with my autovotes so I cannot afford to give my full support to everyone but something is still better than nothing right? :D
Thanks for stopping by Dan, always a pleasure to have you here. All the best to you and Gaby as well.
Ha, I found this comment even though you actually replied to yourself :D No problem buddy, feel free to follow my curation trail, I put some effort in figuring that out and I am happy to share the results ;)
Yes, I noticed! You reached 75 a few weeks earlier than me, good job! The only thing I am beating you right now is probably the curation where I am at some 3.1k earned Hive while you are 1,361 Hive. But that´s also because my HP is higher. If you are going to power up to over 20k, you will greatly improve your curation rewards too ;)
Actually, there was a better tool for checking all the important stats and numbers, it is called BeeMe (that´s where my stats are supposed to show up: https://beeme.icu/?account=phortun) but apparently, it´s been hacked... It was the exact copy of SteemWorld, very important tool that helped me optimize my curation and everything. I hope they will fix it soon :D Good to hear that backscratcher thing is still working out for you.
Thanks for stopping by Dan, always a pleasure :) Have a good day wherever you are.