Even the most expensive homes can fall into a state of disrepair. These mansions were once worth a fortune, yet today they sit in varying states of decay, open to the elements and taken over by nature.
From the holiday home of a Saudi king to the extravagant wastelands of Billionaires' Row and the burnt-out remnants of the Carnegie mansion, click or scroll through and take a look inside these abandoned mansions once owned by the world's super-rich...
Captured by Leland Kent of Abandoned Southeast, the Dungeness ruins on Cumberland Island in the state of Georgia are today all that remains of a series of mansions that housed some of America’s most prominent families.
Named after the Duke of Cumberland, son of King George II, the island was first settled in 1733 by English General James Oglethorpe, who used it as the sight for a hunting lodge he dubbed Dungeness, after an English headland in Kent.
However, by the time of the American Revolution, the island had been divided by royal grants and was uninhabited.
The island was resettled in 1785 by Revolutionary War hero General Nathanael Greene, who died shortly after receiving the island in repayment for his financial contributions to the war effort.
Greene’s widow, Catherine, remarried a man named Phineas Miller, and together the pair built a spacious, four-storey mansion on the island, christening it ‘Dungeness’ after the original hunting lodge. They also used the island to create a large commercial plantation, employing 210 enslaved people to work the land, cultivating rice, cotton, indigo and other crops.
Though the Miller’s Cumberland Island expanded into an enormously profitable planting empire over the course of the early 19th century, their iteration of Dungeness burned down in 1866, leaving behind a ruin known only as “The Chimneys” – a sprawling collection of hearth and chimney structures which represented the once expansive quarters of the island's enslaved people.
The very same year Dungeness was reduced to ashes, a young Thomas Morrison Carnegie married Lucy Coleman, and in 1881, he purchased land on Cumberland Island as a gift for his wife and nine children.
By this time, Carnegie had amassed an enormous fortune from his work in the iron and steel trade, and, as a titan of industry, was able to afford all the luxury and comfort that Gilded Age America epitomised.
Carnegie commissioned the third iteration of Dungeness to resemble a turreted Scottish castle, with 59 rooms, multiple pools, a golf course and 40 auxiliary buildings to house the estate's 200-odd servants.
Over the next five years, the Carnegies bought up the majority of Cumberland Island, continuing to expand their massive estate. Though Thomas Carnegie died before the completion of Dungeness, his wife Lucy finished the home herself, turning it into the family’s primary residence and living there until her own death in 1916.
Lucy’s estate maintained the property until the financial crash of 1929, at which point the Carnegie family abandoned the mansion forever. 30 years later, the deserted estate was destroyed by a mysterious fire, leaving only these ruins behind.
Captured by photographer, YouTuber and urban explorer, Steve Ronin, this extravagant palace was once the holiday home of a Saudi king, King Fahd, until his passing in 2005.
Located on the famed Golden Mile in Marbella, the king was said to be worth $20 billion (£15.7bn) at the time of his death aged 84, and built this palace as his holiday home.
However, now abandoned, the once lavish home has been left to wrack and ruin.
King Fahd arrived in Marbella in the 1970s and once he had built his palace, visited just four times.
On his last visit to the town, the king reportedly brought with him 3,000 family members, friends and staff and stayed for seven weeks, but not before pumping around $81 million (£63.6m) into Marbella's economy.
The holiday home, which is one of many owned by the Saudi royal family, was built in the style of the White House with towering pillars. But today it's unrecognisable, the rooms have been left empty and bare, with only the ceiling mouldings left to show the opulence that once was.
Heading upstairs climbing the sweeping staircase, the palace boasts swathes of windows that lead out to the balcony. What would have once been a space to look out over the sights of Marbella, has now been left open to the elements.
There was no expense spared in the build. With double-height ceilings and intricate plasterwork, it's sad to see some of the rooms are now cluttered and used for storage.
Will this decaying mansion once again be grand? Only time will tell...
The Bishops Avenue in north London is one of the capital's most expensive stretches of real estate. A third of the mansions along here have been left standing empty and abandoned, many of them left to fall into ruin.
Owned by foreign investors who leave the homes uninhabited, around 20 of the once-impressive mansions stand entirely derelict.
Many of the homes were built in the late 1970s and have been left in varying states of decay. This empty hallway, captured by explorers Beyond the Point, is falling apart, with a caved-in ceiling that has let in the elements.
However, it's easy to see elements of faded grandeur still in place, such as the gold banister and stained-glass windows within this cavernous hallway.
As unbelievable as it may seem, some of the homes have been left untouched for over 25 years. This conservatory looks like the owners have just upped and left, with an ashtray still on the rattan table and faded magazines stacked high.
The Bishops Avenue has been dubbed "one of the most expensive wastelands in the world" by developer Anil Varma, who owns a property on this notorious street.
The furniture appears unchanged, with the contents behind the locked doors having been preserved like a time warp.
What was once the ultimate place to live in London has become an entire street of wasteful ruins and decaying buildings.
Is there anything creepier than an empty swimming pool? This room has been left with hanging wires and grime at the bottom of the pool. The mirror and huge skylight show what it once could have been, a sad metaphor for this abandoned Billionaires' Row.
The Jackling House was built in 1925 by famed architect George Washington Smith and captured by photographer Jonathan Haeber in 2007.
The Spanish Revival-style home was purchased by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1984, who lived there until 1994 when it was left abandoned.
In fact, Jobs hated the house so much that he spent the last years of his life petitioning to get the mansion demolished so that he could build a smaller home for his family.
He eventually won the battle and the mansion was demolished in 2011, just eight months before he passed away from pancreatic cancer.
While Jobs' request for demolition was being processed, the home started to fall into a state of disrepair. With no one to look after it, the opulent interior began to be taken over by nature.
Although the paint is peeling and the plaster crumbling, it's not hard to see the past splendour of the 35-room mansion. Spread over 15,000 square feet, it even had a massive pipe organ that was retrieved before demolition.
Located in the affluent town of Woodside in California, the abandoned mansion offered open-air balconies, a games room, marble bathrooms, and a grand staircase complete with a chandelier when it was in its prime. It even had a tunnel underneath the house to get around!
Before the demolition, the property was covered in vines, with mould creeping across the ceilings and old appliances left to decay.
The local town collected a number of artefacts from the home before it was destroyed, including door handles, a chandelier and a toilet.
Once belonging to billionaire Japanese businessman Genshiro Kawamoto, this mansion in Japan was discovered by urban explorer Dan of Exploring with Fighters. It doesn't look like much from the road, but just wait until you see what's inside.
Kawamoto spent his life buying luxury properties in Japan and Hawaii only to leave them uninhabited until they began to slowly fall apart. In 2013 he was arrested for tax evasion and later imprisoned, leaving his very own mega-mansion to decay.
Once home to Kawamoto's art collection, the property mogul left many of his marble and bronze statues dotted around the home, with over 100 of them sitting in the basement. Long left abandoned, the stairs leading upstairs were once lined with plush red carpet.
Today, however, they are littered with rubbish and dirt, maybe from Kawamoto's rush to leave.
Captured by Steve Ronin, the huge dining area almost doesn't look abandoned. With its shiny marble floors, statues and gold chandeliers, it looks like the ultimate place to host a dinner party.
It's only the half-full whisky bottle and dirty glasses on the dining table that make it seem as if time has stood still.
The mansion sits on the edge of a bluff, with panoramic views out to the ocean and beyond. You can see the living space is rundown, with only a ruined sofa and coffee table sitting among the grand marble and bronze statues.
The bedroom is perhaps the most opulent space in the mansion. A tired-looking mattress sits on top of a red fabric platform, while a tiger-skin rug lays just out of shot. The chandelier has crashed to the floor and a lonely pair of shoes still sits neatly on the side.
It's hard to accept that these incredible properties are standing empty!
This spectacular neo-classical Revival masterpiece known as Lynnewood Hall is considered one of the greatest surviving Gilded Age mansions in America. Built between 1897 and 1900 for businessman Peter Arrell Browne Widener, now considered one of the 100 richest Americans in history.
The build is said to have cost $8 million – the equivalent of $296 million (£233m) in today’s money – and has 110 rooms, of which 55 are bedrooms and 20 are bathrooms, as well as an art gallery and a ballroom large enough to accommodate 1,000 guests.
At the height of its former glory, Lynnewood Hall employed 37 full-time staff to run it and a further 60 employees to look after the extensive garden. This impressive entrance hall was captured by urban explorer Leland Kent for Abandoned Southeast.
When Peter Widener died in 1915 the house was left to his youngest son Joseph, who was the last surviving heir after the eldest son George died on the RMS Titanic.
This photo shows the old art gallery, with the fine old skylights still intact. Joseph spent much of his $60 million (£48m) inheritance on the property and particularly its renowned art collection, considered the most important private collection of Gilded Age European masterpieces in the world.
Paintings by Raphael, El Greco, Rembrandt, Donatello and Van Dyck were among the works that once lined these now dilapidated walls.
Filmed in July 2018 by urban explorers svvvk, this lavish ballroom would once have held dances attended by the cream of Philadelphia society. The gold leaf mouldings and central painted ceiling panel give a taste of how impressive this space was in its heyday.
When Joseph died in 1943, the house was abandoned as none of his children wanted to take on the huge responsibility of running the estate.
This fine old house still has all the markings of luxury, with marble bathrooms still intact.
Sadly, the estate was eventually bought by the Faith Theological Seminary, a branch of evangelical Christians, in 1952 who sold off Lynnewood's valuable assets, including its carved mantels, walnut panelling and rare landscape ornaments plus more than 350 acres of land. The house now has only 33 acres.
The now decrepit swimming pool would once have been enclosed with squash courts and changing rooms and was filled with water from the estate’s very own reservoir. In 2003, Lynnewood Hall was added to a list of endangered historic properties in the region and fans of the estate began a campaign to save the house for posterity.
In June 2023, it was announced that this same group of scrappy preservationists purchased Lynnewood and start restoring the building, hoping to return it to its former glory.
This 19th-century Eastlake-style home in Palatka, Florida, was once the beloved summer home of Pennsylvania banking mogul James Ross Mellon.
Vacated years ago, it has since been left to the elements and hides costly antiques inside its decaying walls.
Once the Mellon family's winter retreat, the home, which was recently captured by urban explorer Leland Kent for Abandoned Southeast, has passed through various owners since the family sold it in the late 1930s.
While the entrance hall has crumbling paintwork and signs of damp, it must have been a hub of activity in its heyday.
The once-grand living room has been left to wrack and ruin with flaking plasterwork and debris scattered on the floor. Mattresses also litter the floor, which may indicate that squatters have been staying in the property.
This room was once a place for socialising, with the Mellons hosting the likes of Billy Sunday, a former National League baseball player, later turned evangelist.
Upstairs, the bedrooms still show signs of the home's former life. Several vintage radios, as well as a miniature child's piano, surround the wooden fireplace, which has been well-used.
While the wallpaper is peeling away and debris litters the floor, the space still has a certain charm.
The ensuite bathroom probably used to be a grand space, but now needs a complete overhaul. The fixtures and fittings are grubby and old, while the vivid green paint has worn away over time. It's hard to believe that this once grand house has been reduced to this derelict state.
Wouldn't you love to renovate it?
This crumbling castle was designed and built by David Thomas Abercrombie of fashion chain Abercrombie & Fitch. Built in 1929, it sits in Ossining, New York, and was a project he worked on together with his architect wife, Lucy Abbott Cate.
Called Elda Castle, it was named using the first letter of each of his children's names, in birth order.
After his death in 1931, the home was left to the rest of the family until it was sold in the early 1940s.
After the Second World War, the building was empty for more than a decade and has since had a number of owners, with none of them taking the time to restore the castle to its former glory. At 4,337 square feet, it once boasted 25 rooms that were spread over two floors.
The home is still full of many of its original features, including arched doorways, a cast-iron spiral staircase and courtyards that sit among the ruins.
The entrance is accessed by a flight of curved stone steps, overgrown with weeds, which lead to a glass conservatory where Mr Abercrombie kept his plants.
Sitting on just under 50 acres of land, the house features a number of arched and square doorways and windows, curved stone and iron circular staircases, exposed stone chimneys, and vaulted masonry porches.
The romance of this amazing mansion has charmed many a prospective renovator but as yet, no one has succeeded in restoring the property to its former beauty.
The inside may have been vandalised and left to be taken over by nature, but the exterior is still standing strong, with a steel body and a façade of granite and fieldstone, most of which was sourced from within the grounds.
It last appeared on the market in December 2021 for $3.1 million (£2.4m), before the price was slashed to $2.9 million (£2.3m) in March 2023.
Captured by urban explorer Steve Ronin, this mansion dates back to the 1900s and belonged to a wealthy Italian family who made their fortune through farming. When the parents passed away, the children inherited the huge home but didn't keep up the maintenance.
Eventually, they moved away and left the palace to be forgotten and now large sections of it are collapsing. This drawing room, for example, is scattered with bricks that have fallen from the ceiling.
Exploring the precarious lower floor of the mansion unveils a wealth of surprising treasures. It looks like the family just up and left, as everything has been left in its place, including these early portraits of what we presume is the family on the living room wall.
The family left behind all their personal belongings, with the kitchen looking like it could almost still be in use.
The kitchen table is set with plates and cutlery, while the cupboards are fully stocked with crockery. It's only the dust and dirt that gives away the fact it's been abandoned.
The first floor is dark and dingy, with five huge bedrooms. What could have been the master suite has almost been left untouched. The bed is still made with white sheets and the chest of drawers is packed full of framed old family photos and trinkets.
An empty double wardrobe with a full-length mirror sits on the other side and the bedroom has views out to what would have once been a manicured lawn.
One of the bedrooms even has a miniature town set up in it! We can only imagine one of the children would have stayed in here and that they would have had hours of fun with their traditional toys that have now been left scattered with debris and dust.
The region of Shekhawati, in the northeast part of Rajasthan, India, is famous for its rows of abandoned mansions. The area, which was found in the 1400s and developed at the beginning of the 19th century, was once home to India's billionaires.
Today, many of the grand mansions, known as havelis, are crumbling.
The havelis blossomed until the early 20th century, when the rich business tycoons living there left for better opportunities in areas such as Mumbai and Calcutta. With the trade moving elsewhere, development stopped in Shekhawati and the artwork-covered marvels were abandoned for good.
The havelis were all built in a similar style. Spread over two floors, they often have four courtyards – two reserved for socialising and the other two reserved for cooking and animal stables.
The entrances are made up of ornately carved wood, with mirror work and detailed paintings running throughout.
These days, most of the havelis have fallen into disrepair. Authorities in the region will only allow the mansions to be sold to people who will maintain their heritage and restore the mansions to their former glory.
Now a ghost town, many of the mansions of Shekhawati still retain their air of glamour despite their state of disrepair, reminiscent of the abandoned palaces of Europe.
This haveli still has an old 1930s gramophone in one of its rooms.
This French Eclectic-style spooky mansion was built in 1927 for mega-wealthy magnate Harley Clarke, who went on to become the president of the Fox Film movie studio.
Located in Lighthouse Beach in Evanston, Illinois, the house was probably one of the last great houses built in the area before the Wall Street Crash.
The limestone mansion, which backs onto Lake Michigan, had no expense spared on its design.
Clarke lived at the property with his family until 1949 when his fortune fell victim to the Great Depression. He was eventually forced to sell his opulent mansion to the Sigma Chi fraternity.
The three-storey, 16-room mansion has seven bedrooms, a spacious glass conservatory, a ballroom, basement and six towering chimneys, and was once the perfect entertaining space until it was left abandoned in 2015 by the Evanston Art Center.
During the Evanston Art Center's occupancy of the mansion, the main-floor rooms were converted into exhibition galleries, and the second-floor bedrooms and third-floor ballroom were utilised as classroom space.
The basement was also converted into a pottery studio, featuring both electric and gas-fired kilns, as well as a pottery wheel room and glazing room. However, the house's wood-panelled entry hall and library were retained.
The mansion narrowly escaped demolition when the Evanston Preservation Commission voted unanimously to deny the council permission to raze it to the ground.
Thanks to community campaigns, the City of Evanston issued a Request for Proposals for long-term restoration and reuse of the historic Harley Clarke Mansion. The result is that this great house will now be saved and used by the public!
Located in Peñol Reservoir in the idyllic resort town of Guatapé in Columbia, this once grand holiday home belonged to notorious gangster Pablo Escobar.
Estimated to earn $22 billion – that's $47 billion (£37bn) – a year before his death in 1993, Escobar named the estate was named La Manuela, after his daughter, and was said to be Pablo's second-favourite house according to Atlas Obscura.
Situated on 20 acres of land, the home, which was funded by ill-gotten gains, was targeted by a vigilante group in 1993, who planted a bomb in the bathroom of the home, turning it to ruins.
Escobar had already fled the home and was shot eight months later by authorities.
Today, the main house is a shell of what it once was. Once upon a time it had its own disco room and was built with double-layered walls that were said to be used for hiding money.
However, now open to the public for exploring, reportedly no visitors have ever found anything hidden within the crumbling walls of the historic house.
Years of neglect have seen the property descend into decay, but in its heyday, it would have boasted a pool, tennis courts, a helipad and a guest house, all surrounded by imported trees.
Taken over by nature, much of the home is unrecognisable. The little advertised house now lets visitors access the pool, the bathroom where the bomb exploded and even Escobar's room. If walls could talk!
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