Exploring abandoned architecture near Tallinn, Estonia
How we went to shoot autumn leaves but ended up in abandoned military base
As the autumn has slowly arrived we were planning quite a while to go shoot some of the autumn leaves. Days are getting shorter so going out during week after a day of work is somewhat pointless — it’ll be already dark before we get anywhere, so the weekends are really the only opportunity to get any pictures
We had a photo trip planned since few days, but as the weather was rather gloomy, some of people were thinking about cancelling. I, having not shot anything for almost a week, of course could not accept this thing. The urge to take photos was too big so I pushed on.
We decided that it was not the best weather for shooting autumn, but it is excellent weather for some urban exploration, so I loaded my camera with some black and white film, and off we went towards the “Abandoned Chemical Factory of Maardu”.
The problem with those “abandoned factories” is that they are rarely ever really abandoned. While they definitely do not work in full capacity any longer and the buildings look all but abandoned, there are still companies who have taken up some space in these buildings and are working on a project or another.
We did manage to capture some pictures in there, but it was clear that it was not very abandoned. We were even told by some people that we are not supposed to be there as it is private property. To really get inside in one of those places, you are better off working out something with some of the people who own them.
As we were not really welcome in there and it looked like we don’t have much access to the more interesting places in the complex, we drove off to look for other interesting places.
As we checked the map one place nearby that definitely seemed interesting was the “Ülgase Caves”. Very old abandoned mine that was used in early 20th century for phosphorite mining.
We arrived near the site according to google maps and parked our car. After some climbing up a steep hill we arrived at the cave entrance. So we said bye to the gray skies and dived into the system for some exploration.
I was expecting to find a small cave, but instead there is reportedly full 7 kilometers of tunnels in there. The caves are mostly just tunnels going in straight lines, so it is not awfully exciting. The ceiling is about the height of a man, so you are likely to hit your head if you are 180 cm and over. But mostly they are comfortable to navigate.
One thing you may notice, there is no support structures at all. Regardless of that, this cave system is considered to be one of the safest. One mining expert called this an excellent example of cave building and considers walking in those mines right now just as safe as walking on the streets. Regardless, it did give quite some eerie feelings, so I was fairly happy to be back on the ground after an hour of exploration.
Although caves themselves are considered fairly safe, the ground nearby is not so much. There is a high risk of landslides, and there definitely were signs of that. So it is actually somewhat more risky to be outside of those caves rather than inside.
As probably the most famous waterfall of Estonia, “Jägala Juga”, was nearby and one of our group had not seen it, we decided to give this one a visit too. This time I even had packed some of my filters, so I tried to shoot some long exposures.
But soon after, one of my friends commandeered my ND filter and other one took my tripod. As I have already taken many long exposures on the site, I did not mind.
Instead I took a look around to see if there was something else interesting to shoot.
While the Jägala waterfall is not exactly abandoned architecture, it does have some interesting buildings around it, some more — some less abandoned. Apparently it looks dark enough so lot of the the cult sci-fi classic film “Stalker” was shot on locations near the waterfall.
As we felt we hadn’t seen enough abandoned places for the day. We took course towards Loksa, specifically near the Pärispea military base. Not sure what we were thinking as it was already getting dark and it was quite far away, but this is where we went.
We found a place where to park our car and walked down a path towards the military complex. Everything was overgrown by trees, so it was hard to guess what was waiting us.
There was checkpoint, but fortunately it was abandoned more than 20 years ago and so was the huge silicate building 5o meters down the road. Doors were wide open, so we stepped in.
First thing that greeted us was a long russian text written on a wall with some paint.
I personally do not speak that language, but I have friends who do, so after returning I asked one of them to translate it. This is what he gave me:
“Hello, you didn’t wait? Listen, they gave us up!! Literally five minutes ago they caught me. Gave me a phone, like for a lawyer… What fucking lawyers?! Take your things and run from home. Those predators — detectives are already looking for you, they know your names, faces, phone numbers. Even that we know each other!! Yes I know the laws, but this is too little. I feel I am finished. By the way I gave away the keys long time ago. After the call, turn off the phone!! Find Vanochi (name?) and pull me out. Don’t panic, keep your mouth shut. I realized two things, nothing is free and you will bear responsibility for everything, and that evil is our weakness. I did not manage to understand freedom, sweetheart…”
The first word “Алё” means hello, but in a form that is only used when answering a phone, this seems to indicate a phone call transcript rather than a message left by some criminal individuals warning others they were supposed to meet in the location.
I have no idea what this is supposed to be exactly. But all signs point to it being a work of fiction. Maybe a quote from a book or a film, or maybe just a form of art installation to make people like me wonder.
Although most of the building was just very dark corridors. The top floors had a very interesting views. Also there was considerable amount of graffiti all around the place, among which some better quality pieces. It almost reminded me Teufelsberg (abandoned radar station near Berlin). Although latter has a lot more elaborate graffiti and much more stunning views.
The light was fading fast and I had just run out of 400 ISO film I was shooting before, and only thing I had in my bag was Kodak Tmax 100. Which of course is definitely something you should not use in darkness. Unless you have a tripod. Which I totally did.
If you can’t get any real ghosts on the picture. You can always make some by taking long exposure shots while your friends are in the frame and checking their instagram.
There was still a lot to explore in the military complex, but unfortunately even the last bits of light were gone. So we ended up packing our bags and headed back towards Tallinn.
