Leisure
Dadipark
by Huib on Oct.17, 2009, under Abandoned, Belgium, Leisure
This abandoned themepark made a small town famous. The story starts in October 1949 when priest Deweer opened a small park. In 1950 it started as a test under the name Daiselpark.
In the year 2000 it all went wrong, when a boy lost his arm in a toy jet and people started complaining about the security. From then on, fewer people visited the park every year.
In 2002 the park closed. It was planned to be closed for a year but in 2003 it didn’t open again and the place that once brought so much joy is now rotting away. Nature is trying to take it over and there are no future plans for this beautiful place.
Hofstade
by Huib on Oct.03, 2009, under Abandoned, Belgium, Leisure
The history of this domein in Hofstade starts in the year 1910. Because more people where using the train, the national railway company wanted to add a new line for freight trains. For safety of motorways and the Leuven canal the railway is placed on an elevated bank. The ground to build the banks is taken from the lands south of Hofstade. The work stopped in 1912 when the First World War started. During these years the digged holes filled with water creating two lakes. After the war the digging continued and the lakes grew.
In the 1920 the domain became a touristic paradise. More and more people went there in warm summers to search for cool water. In 1925 the city of Mechelen claimed the lakes; they needed them to provide the city of water. The lakes were fenced off and armed guards protected the place.
It took until 1933 before the domain got public again. A private company run the place and opened a small beach and some catering buildings around it. The following years the place got busier every day, about 35.000 people enjoyed the beach on a sunny day.
The open air swimming pool was built on the old beach. The pool is 100 by 50 meter and was 1.60 meters deep. This open air pool was the biggest in Europe for several years.
Today the domain is still used for sport and recreation by a organisation named Bloso, but the glory years are gone. The swimming pool got abandoned in 1990 when the new beach opened. Now the fresh blue tiles took place for grey concrete with dark dirty water, a sad ending for a place that brought so much joy.
Eder Kuil
by Huib on Sep.28, 2009, under Active again, Leisure, The Netherlands
Eder Kuil is a theater in the city Ede, it is build in 1936 and it can have 2060 visitors. This location isn’t complete abandoned, there are 5 events in a year on this location, the rest of the year its abandoned and waiting for the next party.
Cinema-theatre Varia
by Huib on Jul.24, 2009, under Abandoned, Belgium, Leisure
A while ago I visited this location with Vinnie, its a beautiful theatre in Belgium, it was one of the hardest places to enter, but that was mainly because of the situation where its located.
Some info:
The Cinema-Theatre Varia was built in 1913 and designed by architect E. Claes.
Closed in 1986, the particular facade and roof structure were listed as historic monument in 1992.
Renovation started end of 2004 but was recently cancelled by lack of funds.
Vredeburg
by Huib on May.22, 2009, under Endangered, Leisure, The Netherlands
On 21-05-2009 Vinnie and I visited this locations early in the morning.
We where getting a little bit tired of always going to Belgium or Germany to urbex, and we did some Holland locations. Some of them where very great some of them are less great.
This location is in the middle of a big city in the Netherlands, we where there very early and nobody did see us. We had a hard time getting in the location and when we where almost giving up we found our way in. There wasn’t really much to see inside but the main stage was interesting, the owner knows about the stage being interesting because he placed a alarm over there. I couldn’t find a nice spot for the tripod so it aren’t the most beautiful pictures but I am still showing you the pictures I made in the Vredeburg.