Abandoned Spain

Towns bombed during the Spanish Civil War that were never rebuilt; an international railway station once teeming with Nazi and Allied double agents, now concealing a state-of-the-art dark matter research laboratory; a former munitions dump hewn out of the mountainside; a winery whose vast tanks form a unique architectural site; and various laboratories that have closed down, their experiments frozen in time …

Although the remains of the old town of Belchite and Canfranc railway station are popular with urban explorers in Spain, many other historic sites – overlooked even by local people – are on the brink of vanishing into oblivion.

For the last ten years, the cameras of Fran Lens, Paco Quiles and Carlos Sanmillán have criss-crossed the country to record these abandoned locations for posterity. Their work is featured in this photo report infused with history and adrenaline.