Italy's #01 Valentina Gottardi waits for the ball in the women's pool A beach volleyball match between Italy and Egypt during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Eiffel Tower Stadium in Paris on July 30, 2024. (Photo by Thomas Samson/AFP Photo)

White House Press Secretary James Brady and District of Columbia police officer Thomas Delahanty lie wounded on the ground after John Hinckley Jr. fired six shots at President Reagan outside the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC, on March 30, 1981. (Photo by Courtesy Reagan Library via Reuters)

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)

A view of an entrance to the concrete case surrounding the pressure vessel of the reactor is seen inside the decommissioned Unit Six of the Greifswald nuclear power station outside Lubmin August 5, 2014. Unit Six was a part of East Germany's largest nuclear power plant that was nearly completed in 1990, when the country's re-unification halted construction. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

People look at a RoboThespian humanoid robot at the Tami Intelligence Technology stall at the WRC 2016 World Robot Conference in Beijing, China, October 21, 2016. The conference showcased China's burgeoning robot industry as the nation seeks to increase the use of robots in its manufacturing and service industries. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Thomas Shelby makes a fire as he prepares to stay the night by the rubble of his home to protect from potential looters in Dawson Springs, Kentucky, on Saturday, December 11, 2021. One or more tornados tore through Dawson Springs late last night. (Photo by Austin Anthony/The Washington Post)

Vapour bounced off the wings of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II as it sped over the Welsh mountains at a swift 575mph on February 10, 2022. The jet was taking part in a low-level training exercise through the Mach Loop – a series of valleys in North Wales. (Photo by Thomas Winstone/News Images)

A man reacts as he tries to extinguish a burning Christmas tree at Festival Walk mall in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, November 12, 2019. Anti-government protesters smashed windows and set fires in the mall on Tuesday, including to a big Christmas tree. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)