Explore #9 of the Gigawatts & Megalolz Tour
The penultimate location on Day Two of our trip was this wonderful old hotel, set in a beautiful gorge in the South Belgian countryside.
History
The Grand Hotel Regnier was built around 1904, but sadly it has been closed for many years since the business went bust. The elderly owner still lives nearby, and mourns the continuing and inevitable decline of this once grand building.
Our Explore
I had wanted to visit the GHR from the moment I first saw Perjury Saint’s stunning photograph of the ballroom.
Whilst the ballroom is the best of what still remains, our group did enjoy a pleasant hour or two exploring and photographing the rest of the large downstairs reception area, and the corridors and bedrooms upstairs – with each floor up bringing a rapidly escalating level of decay and structural disintegration.
Whilst it may be of little consolation to the owner, this old beauty is at least still being admired and appreciated in its final years by myself and other fellow explorers.
I’m afraid that I’m currently so far behind with editing my photos from this summer and autumn that I’d actually paid a revisit a month or so later before I’ve got around to posting a report from the first visit – so I’m posting my shots from both explores together.
As always, click on a photo to VIEW LARGE.
The grand reception area, with famous (in urbex circles at least!) piano.
Piano detail.
The shot I’d come for – the beautiful decay of the old ballroom. I love the textures and colours in the walls, and the echoes from the ornate windows and skylight of the hotel’s former glory. This shot is definitely best viewed large!
Venturing upstairs…
…the top floor, where the decay and damage was at its most advanced.
…a quick shot in the late afternoon sunshine as we bade a fond farewell to the GHR…
…and an old postcard which gives an idea of what the hotel looked like back in its pomp.
Revisit
Explore #11 of the Taking the Piscine Tour.
During a brief revisit a month or so later in September 2014 I grabbed a handful more shots, and couldn’t resist also shooting the ballroom again – I know it’s a VERY similar shot to the previous one, but I can never get tired of that particular view!
Detail shot of the decaying wallpaper on the ground floor.
James from James Kerwin Photographic and Rebecca from Rebecca Litchfield Photography doing their thing.
And a sneaky portrait of Sam aka Carrot In Motion also giving the ballroom some love.
More wallpaper detail.
Rebecca shooting the aforementioned famous piano.
And it’s only fitting that I end my report with my revisit reshoot of that ballroom – again best viewed large.
Thanks for checking in – plenty more reports coming just a soon as I can get around to editing and writing them, and in the meantime please also follow my (fairly) new Facebook Page for more regular updates.
Cheers Adam X
6 comments
C’est magnifique!
Its an amazing place! I dont know whats up with Belgium, but it seems to be full of awesome spots to explore.