URBEX: The fascination of urban exploration

Urbex (Urban Exploration) is an activity that is depopulating in recent years and consists in the exploration and photography of abandoned places in search of mysterious objects and forgotten stories. A combination of danger, adrenaline and adventure that is attracting more and more people and bringing to light many unoccupied areas.

Hospitals, asylums, factories, churches and villas left in oblivion are the protagonists of these explorations, which, although existing for decades, have seen a considerable spread in recent years, especially thanks to the Internet. On YouTube there are countless videos of groups of people who decide to undertake these adventures and there are many more spectators intrigued and fascinated by the mystery that surrounds these places.

There are several reasons for those who decide to become urban explorers, starting from the simple desire to document to preserve history, from the desire to experience the feeling of return to the past, to the desire, often even naive, to live an adrenaline adventure.

However, there are many risks; even the most experienced explorers can never know what they can come across entering one of these places. There may be dangerous beams, unstable stairs and fragile floors, as well as toxic substances (which is why in the videos you see explorers wearing special protective masks). Sometimes it is also possible to meet other dangerous people inside the buildings; these places act, in fact, as a shelter for many homeless people, but also as a hiding place for drug dealers, fugitives and, incredible but true, people belonging to secret sects. In addition, most of these places are restricted to public access, and so it might be possible to break the law by incurring fines.

Despite the aspects listed above, Urbex is an activity that has shaken the masses because it shows how many are the places that the state has decided to forget, places that could be revived by building hospitals and homes. In addition, often these are places with an enormous artistic heritage that could be restored and made accessible as real museums.

And what are the most important rules that all explorers must follow? Leave everything as it is! Not only do not do vandalism, but you must also refrain from taking the objects that is possible to find (which are often also very valuable). Another thing: the explorers who publish their adventures, will never reveal the actual location of the place, both for the enormous effort to find places like this, both because they would risk witnessing an assault on the place by many people who would ruin it.

Articolo a cura di: Marijana Jovanovic