A fire engulfs The Address Hotel in downtown Dubai in the United Arab Emirates December 31, 2015. Fire engulfed a luxury building near the world’s tallest skyscraper in Dubai on Thursday as tens of thousands of people were gathering at its base for one of the world’s largest New Year’s fireworks displays. (Photo by Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

A model sports a creation by the Hungarian label Romani Design during a show of the second bi-annual Budapest Central European Fashion Week in Budapest, Hungary, 26 October 2018. (Photo by Zoltan Balogh/EPA/EFE)

“Coming back home at 5am sunrise, I was just beginning to digest the grand event I was lucky to witness and cover: the wedding of the grandson of one of the most influential spiritual leaders in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community...”. – Ronen Zvulun via Reuters. Photo: Ultra-orthodox Jewish wedding in Israel. Tens of thousands of Ultra-Orthodox Jews of the Belz Hasidic dynasty gather at the wedding ceremony of Rabbi Shalom Rokach in Kiryat Belz, in Jerusalem, on May 21, 2013. Around 25,000 ultra-orthodox Jews took part, making it one of the biggest weddings of the past few years. (Photo by Gil Cohen)

Stingray City is a series of shallow sandbars found in the North Sound of Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. It is a tourist attraction, where southern stingrays are found in abundance and visitors can pet and interact with the animals.

A contestant prepares backstage before performing at the “Grand Prix of Siberia” international ballet competition, held as part of the 4th International Forum “Ballet. XXI Century”, at the State Opera and Ballet Theatre in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia, November 11, 2016. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Since its unveiling in 2006 this masterpiece created by Frank Gehry to house the Hotel Marqués de Riscal has become a highly sought after contemporary, luxury retreat. Design, art, gastronomy, wine and the lush landscape all combine to create a memorable sojourn.

Grand banqueting halls, opulent lobbies and vast ballrooms; you could easily be forgiven for thinking this was a collection of photographs was documenting some of Europe’s grandest hotels. However, a closer look will reveal the majestic rooms to be engulfed in swathes of dust and moss; hotels that once hosted royals and high society abandoned to the elements. This is the latest result of urban exploration photography, going beyond “no entry” signs to capture images of dilapidated buildings across Europe. IT worker Thomas Windisch, from Graz in Austria, indulged his passion for photography by traveling across the continent, visiting over 100 abandoned hotels along the way. Here: inside a hotel in Austria. (Photo by Thomas Windisch/Caters News)