Abandoned Palaces by Michael Kerrigan is a gorgeous collection of photos from around the world, featuring abandoned palaces, mansions, and similar structures. Some of the most interesting for me were the abandoned hotels, as well as the buildings from Asia. Each photo is accompanied by a tidbit of information about the building in question. Many of the eerie pictures within prompted the beginning of poems for me. This would make a great coffee table book!

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Amber Books Ltd for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Interesting pictures of beautiful but abandoned buildings around the world. Some are a little creepy and get your imagination going! A lovely coffee table book.

Astonishingly pretty and intensely well-researched. A cracking read and lovely coffee table book, and I shall be purchasing asap.

This book is heaven for me. I watch videos of abandoned buildings on YouTube, and one of my favourite tv programmes is Abandoned Engineering. I know. Complete abandoned buildings geekery. A beautiful book, both the photography and the little snippets of information that come with each picture. Fascinating history.

This was beautiful as an ebook, so I can only imagine how much more enjoyable it'll be on the printed page. The photographs are gorgeous, and I really enjoyed that while all the places are abandoned the mood in the photographs were variable. There's a lot of story in here, for so few words, but then again - pictures are (supposedly) worth many more of them!

Review: Abandoned Palaces by Michael Kerrigan. 

Abandoned Palaces tells the stories behind dilapidated structures from all around the world. From ancient Roman villas to the French colonial hill station in Cambodia that was one of the final refuges of the Khmer Rouge.

Captivated incredibly through these many photos, it’s hard to believe some of these were left to rack and ruin over hundreds of years. From the incredible tilework of Sammezzano Castle to the incredible beauty of Castle Saunderson, this book captures incredible buildings that have been left to the elements - haunting and brilliant at the same time.

Throughout the book we are given brief insights into these buildings and their history, giving you space to wonder and research these buildings - I certainly have and it makes me want to go and rescue as many as possible, it makes me glad in some ways we have The National Trust that ensures that stately homes in the UK are rescued and preserved.

From the stunning Bozkow Palace to the Presidential Palace in Gbadolite, CAR, this book covers every corner of the world and it’s spots of wonder that are left to the wilds, and it makes for a interesting and thought provoking read from beginning to end. (My only wish is there was a page of further reading!). 



(I received an ARC from Betgalley for honest review).

A fascinating books, the pictures are amazing and it's great travelling to new places.
I'd like to see the paper book because it must be wonderful.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Super cool book with great imagery. I'd love to see this as a physical book. Would make a great gift

This is a beautiful photography book looking at grand buildings that have been abandoned and left for nature to reclaim. I'm a huge fan of photography of architectural decay, so I was really pleased that this book includes a massive amount of new places I'd never heard of! However, you get mostly exterior photos, and only one of most, going up to two or three of a few - I would have loved for there to be a slightly more detailed tour of some of them. Still, at least I now know where to look, and this is a gorgeous collection in its own right. It would make a lovely coffee table book!

This was an interesting coffee table style book. The photographs were generally beautiful and the captions were well written and added some much-needed context. This is a great gift for all those who are interested in urban exploring.

An interesting look at abandoned palaces (as well as other buildings such as grand houses or hotels) all over the world. I liked how the book was divided into different parts of the world and appreciated the information which went along with each photograph giving a history of the building. Unfortunately, the advanced PDF copy did not do the photographs justice and I look forward to seeing the book to gain a further appreciation of these magnificent buildings.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I have a huge fascination with abandoned places so this book was perfect for me! Loved the photos, breathtaking, beautiful and just a little creepy!

I requested this book just to see if Portugal appeared. It does.
Despite being titled "Abandoned Palaces", this book has picture os any building that was supposed to look grandiose at the time of its construction.
One of the things that I liked the most is that this book has pictures of all around the world, not just of Europe.
This is not the easiest book to read digitally because the ADE freezes whenever the file has images so you need to zoom in to be able to read the description and then zoom out to be able to appreciate the photograph.
The pictures themselves did not impress me as I thought they would, instead of eerie, most just seemed dirty and old but I did learn about several interesting buildings

I love abandoned places photography! I adore the atmosphere, the haunting quality of the images and imagining the history of the buildings and those who have lived in or visited them.

Most of the collections of abandoned places I’ve seen have focused on the buildings’ interiors. This book includes some interior photos as well as some bird’s-eye view shots that show an interesting blend of interior and exterior. However, a greater proportion show the overall exterior of the building, with sections of facades crumbling on some and nature overrunning others, and I really enjoyed those photos. I particularly liked those that highlight the contrast between neglected architecture and flourishing greenery surrounding it (and oftentimes growing over it).

The descriptions that accompany each image are succinct; you learn enough to provide context but not so much that the information overwhelms the picture. Each section includes a short introduction to the overall location: The Americas and Caribbean, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and Asia and the Pacific.

Each time I look through this book (three times so far) different photos catch my eye and details I’ve previously missed stand out. I do have a few favourites that I expect will remain, no matter how many times I return. The one that stands out the most and that I most desperately need to visit is Pidhirsti Palace in Lviv, Ukraine.

The original photo by LALS STOCK can be found on Shutterstock. Editing of the image in this book (or it may be because I’m reading an ARC) has given it a creepier feel than the original, but that has added to my love for this particular photo.

Although the colour feels off (again, this could be due to my viewing an ARC on an iPad) my favourite photo that showed some interior was of Ladendorf Castle in Mistelbach, Austria.

I loved that this open door felt like an invitation and, although it’s actually a courtyard you’re getting a glimpse of, I immediately imagined that a path out of view behind this building would lead intrepid explorers to another world. (That is one of the reasons why I love photography so much; it awakens my imagination.) This photo of Ladendorf Castle is by Viennaslide and can be found on Alamy.

I was quite disappointed to learn that the photos were all sourced from stock image sites: 123RF, Alamy, Dreamstime, FLPA, Getty Images, Globallookpress.com, iStock and Shutterstock. In the past I’ve enjoyed collections of abandoned places photos by a single artist; I find this provides more of a cohesive feel to the project and gives me a sense of their ‘eye’ by the end of the book. I also enjoy the anecdotes a photographer can provide based on their experiences shooting at specific locations.

These details are missing here; this isn’t necessarily a bad thing but is certainly something I would have liked to have known before I started reading/looking. Also missing are the interior photos that show details of abandoned items that I love to pore over; they provide a small but important connection for me to the history of the buildings and the people who spent time there.

To be taken with a grain of salt as this relates to the ARC: There were some photos that appeared underexposed and others that appeared to have been edited so the colour was unnaturally saturated in places. These may be artistic choices by the individual photographers or the book’s editor or could be due to the fact that I viewed an advanced copy on an iPad. These comments may be entirely irrelevant once this book has been published.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amber Books for the opportunity to view this book. I’m rounding up from 3.5 stars.

My problem with this book is the same as with it’s sister book about Paris. The buildings are more interesting but fail to make an impact because of the way the photographs have been manipulated. They are overly dark in an effort to add atmosphere, so much so that you can see very little detail.. The colours also looks to have been enhanced and has become garish to the eye. Another coffee table book but not one I would buy.