It feels strange to want to go to prison!
We woke up early and left our top floor penthouse suite at the hotel in Brussels. It was time to drive to France and go to prison so to speak. We had heard a lot about this huge prison called H15 and we weren’t sure if the stories were rumors or true. One of the stories was that it was a huge gypsy camp outside the main entrance, and we had to avoid being seen by them at all cost.
There were stories about them acting as a kind of guard squad for the place and that they demanded money or worse if they caught trespassers.
Supplied with detailed information and maps on how to get into this prison we found our parking spot and walked for a long time to find the entry point. Everything went as planned and we were behind the walls in no time. Behind the huge fences, the buildings itself was easy to access. Metal thieves had taken almost every lock in the entire prison.
The story of the place starts when it was a Christian monastery in the beginning of 1200. The monks left during the French Revolution and in the 1900’s the place was converted to a prison.
After several years of building and expansion, it could house up to 1500 inmates at one point. In 2011 it was abandoned and frequent visits by all kinds of people have led to massive decay and vandalism.
We spent almost half a day inside H15. Then it was time to feel the sunlight again and head to the car and drive to the next location.
Great to see shots of this place! I would love to visit a prison. What a place. Why was it abandoned?
Thanks. It’s a great place. It was a abandoned because it was outdated and the inmates was moved to a newer and more modern prison.
Cool pictures……. You should do a night and day set…. The place looks like it would be pretty creepy at night 🙂
Amazing photo ! your blog is awesome, can you also visit my blog ? about Urban Exploration.
It would be cool to stay over night , see a night shot video