I have had an affinity to climb around construction sites and in empty houses since my childhood years – anything that was forbidden. Something I still like to do. There are already a lot of urban explorers who present their “findings” on their web pages. Recently I have stumbled upon some really nice abandoned places which I wish to show you here.
In summer I spent some time in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana. I had lived there for four and a half years and it is still the place I would call “home”. I know the city quite well and this time I wanted to see something I never came across before. And then I heard about an abandoned hotel very close to the city centre: the Hotel Bellevue.
Near the old town of Ljubljana there’s a huge park, Tivoli. On the outbound the park is restricted by several hills. On one of those hills, not so far from the Hala Tivoli sports centre, the Hotel Bellevue is situated. Nowadays the large-area property (1,314 m2) is in a sorry state, though it has an interesting history.
The History of Bellevue
Hotel Bellevue was built in 1909. For this occasion they tore down a coffee-house which was once located at the premises. The hotel was sold several times in its history, until it was eventually nationalised by the Yugoslav government in 1953.
After the independence of Slovenia in 1991 Bellevue seems to have lost its prestige. Only in 2005 it was sold to a student agency which turned the hotel into a dance club. Then several fires destroyed the once so beautiful building to a ruin.
In 2009 the hotel was sold again, bought by the investment company Mawared International. They said they wanted to either renovate the hotel or tear it down and replace it with a new one. Until now nothing happened and the hotel appears to have been sold for around 7 mio. Euros.
Exploring the Hotel
From the outside one can already see that the Hotel Bellevue is closer to a ruin than to a building. The whole surrounding area is huge and consists mainly of trees and bushes. In front of the hotel still is the wooden pavilion, as can be seen in the picture above.
The way in is easy. There are enough holes where you can slip in. What you need is a flashlight and I highly recommend a helmet, because you never can predict when parts of the ceiling are falling down. And: Do not go to such places on your own (and use shoes that are not sandals)!
Walking around in an abandoned hotel ruin is creepy. Due to its size I didn’t get to see all the rooms. When you come in, you can see the remains of the disco they had here. It is very dark, since the downstairs windows are covered with planks. As a reader of my articles you maybe wouldn’t have felt too comfortable in this disco. It has been more like a techno/trance thing.
Be careful when ascending to the second and third floor, the stairs don’t look too trustworthy. The second floor has very big rooms/halls. From there you can enter the big terrace. This must have been a nice place for the guests of this 5-stars-hotel, enjoying the panorama of the city while drinking a good hot coffee.
The corridor on the third floor is blocked by a wall of disgusting trash (somebody seems to live here, creepy!) and some fallen pieces of furniture. Damn, a big part of Hotel Bellevue is there on the other side. You can pass by, if you wanted, but I didn’t want to risk going through the trash and accidentally step into some used syringe.
Now to the basement! Trying to go downstairs I just walked a little bit into the dark, but it was too creepy. When you are at places like this, you steadily have the feeling someone is watching you. You are hearing noises and voices that are not (?) there.
But now no more describing, you deserve to see some impressions of Hotel Bellevue, how it is now.
