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)

Saul of the Cubacigar company repairs the largest cigar in the world at the Pipe and Tobacco museum of Sint Niklaas on November 27, 2008 in Brussels, Belgium. The cigar is 6.4 meters long, weighs 460 kilos and is made of approximately 9900 tobacco leaves. (Photo by Mark Renders/Getty Images)

A stray dog is pictured besides a graffiti made on a shutter of a closed shop at a market area during an ongoing state-wide weekend curfew imposed by the directive of the Delhi government to curb the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus in New Delhi on January 9, 2022. (Photo by Sajjad Hussain/AFP Photo)

An Afghan vendor selling birds to be kept as pets wait for customers in his shop in Kabul on December 11, 2021. (Photo by Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP Photo)

Mural of wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill wearing stockings and suspenders and giving the “V” sign by illusive local artist who goes by the name Horace, on the side of the Sandpiper guest house in Brighton on November 22, 2020. (Photo by Gareth Fuller/PA Images via Getty Images)

People dressed as characters from the computer game “World of Warcraft” walk across a field near the town of Kamyk nad Vltavou, Czech Republic, April 28, 2018. (Photo by David W. Cerny/Reuters)

Men are sent down into the sludge to clear the sewers in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on May 23, 2018. The people who do the work aren’t even given any protective clothing or goggles and have to dig out the clogged-up muck with a stick or their bare hands. (Photo by Rehman Asad/Barcroft Media)

A woman walks past a mural painting on a street in Tokyo, Japan on Wednesday, April 25, 2018. (Photo by Koji Sasahara/AP Photo)