Abandoned Places in Dnipro

Dnipro’s rapidly falling population (from 1.3 million in the 1990s to around 900,000 today) is probably part of the reason there are so many abandoned buildings. One of the best-known attractions of Dnipro is urban exploration – you can find out more information by visiting the VK (think Russian Facebook) page https://vk.com/dneprzabr which has almost 2000 members.

NB: Poroshenko has banned Russian-owned VK, amongst other things, while I was writing this post. The site is now only accessible in Ukraine if you have a VPN.

Hotel Parus

Sicheslavska Naberezhna St, 5

More than 40 years since construction started on the Hotel Parus yet it has still not opened for business. Some blame the fall of the Soviet Union, others cite poorly managed funds. A popular rumour is that the foundations were sinking into the River Dnieper. After the collapse of the USSR, looters became rife and stripped the building of anything of value, including windows and doors from their frames, copper wiring and other building materials. The hulking form of Parus is a sad monument to the former glory days of Dnipro.

Apparently, you used to be able to bribe the guards to get in, but since a girl fell and died last year they’re not doing that anymore. Haven’t been able to fact check that story, but enough people have told me to make me not want to try it. To be fair, I didn’t even see any guards while I was there. It’s all fenced off with barbed wire and there’s not even a little house for them to sit in – not that I saw at least but I did put in about 1% effort into finding them.

Red Cross Hospital

Korolenka St, 20a

The Red Cross Hospital was built in 1910, and the Red Cross emblem is still visible on both of the street-facing facades. It was an active hospital throughout both world wars, and was one of the USSR’s leading medical facilities. After a period of rapid deterioration throughout the 1990s, the hospital was condemned in 2008 and left to nature. And the homeless.

I first found out about the abandoned Red Cross Hospital from Megan Starr’s post. She describes how some of the upper floors of the building had caught fire due to vagrants and squatters lighting fires. Unfortunately, in the short time between when Megan visited and when I was there, the building has completely collapsed. I was able to get through the gate (there are two dogs that are scary as fuck, even though they’re on chains – you’ve been warned) and the whole place is a hot mess. Megan also mentions an underground pharmacy that was in comparatively good condition and still housing unused medications (seriously, just go read her post so I don’t have to keep paraphrasing it). I didn’t see the entrance to it but unless it’s underneath the rubble I can only imagine it is still intact. Go and see for yourself. It’s worth walking past, there are still 2 exterior walls standing and you can see how the storeys inside have collapsed in on one another, which I found interesting.

DK Ilyich

Serhiia Nihoiana Ave, 47

Since my last post about the Ilyich I’ve made two more attempts to get inside this building. I recruited a friend from the VK group to help me. We tried a whole bunch of ways to get in but ultimately were unsuccessful. He kept showing me different places that he had used in the past to enter the building, but were now blocked off in some ramshackle way – some holes hastily bricked up, some windows barricaded with the iron railings from Russian Orthodox cemeteries.

Later, another member of the VK group messaged me that the guards were definitely taking bribes at the moment. So, I took some cash out – I decided I was willing to spend up to 500 UAH (about $25 US). I knocked on the door again, and again there was no answer. Feeling a little deflated, I was aimlessly playing on my phone when I noticed that if I looked up, I could see a guard sitting at a desk behind a sheer lacy curtain. I waved at him and he opened the window and barked at me. I said, in my shitty Russian, that I spoke English and could I please come in? He told me that it would cost money – well, his exact words were that it would cost a dollar. When I asked how much, he told me 25 UAH (literally $1 US). I ended up giving him 100 UAH as it was the smallest note I had and it didn’t seem proper to ask for change from a bribe.

The building is bloody massive and he ended up giving me a tour that lasted for about two and a half hours. The place is a complete mess. You can usually guess what the rooms were once used for by what debris is lying on the floor. For example, the cinema is covered in loose pieces of film, and the library is covered surprisingly not with books, but with those borrowing cards that were in the front of your high school text books. The resident dog, Marta, is allowed to piss and shit wherever she pleases, and it was only when I saw the costume rooms that I understood why I had seen her chewing on 13 different shoes.

Amazingly, other than the infamous statue of Lenin in the library, the remnants of a bust and the vandalised Petrovsky in a corridor, I didn’t really see any Soviet memorabilia. I guess it’s all been either destroyed or taken as a trophy.

If you’re planning on visiting, I would also definitely bring a torch. There is no electricity in the main part of the building, and it seems to have two floors underground that were completely black. I had my phone but there were a few occasions that I wished I had a light that was a little brighter. The guards’ station is on the left side of the building, near the metro station. Don’t knock on the black door, look up and to the left to the window, smile and wave.

 

 

Planning a trip to Ukraine?

Soviet Mosaics, Kharkiv
Abandoned Tank Graveyard, Kharkiv
Soviet Mosaics, Dnipro
Dnipro Street Art Guide
Coffee Guide, Dnipro
Darth Vader Statue, Odessa 
Zaporizhia
Khortytsia Island