Imperial Corps Left To Decay

These barracks had been used for their intended purpose but in 1996 the army left this place forever. Since then it’s been a mess there. The barracks are located in Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, 80 km (49 miles) from Odessa. They are called “Alexandrovskiye”  after the emperor Alexander. But today everything is abandoned and plundered. Below are photos of the plundered Soviet barracks that had been the splendid imperial buildings once.

The poster reads: “Bon appetite!”

It says: “No entry”. But we gonna enter anyway.

Last year the territory was still guarded but nowadays it is not. We gonna start from the imperial building.

In the beginning of the XIXth century emperor Alexander decided to strengthen the imperial borders in Bessarabia. In 1820 he ordered to build these officer corps and soldier barracks in Akkerman. Though they were built only in ten years, in the times of Nikolay I, they were called “Alexandrovskiye” anyway.

The barracks were built in the oriental style. They are considered to be the monument of architecture but are in a poor condition today.

In 2007 here was a strong fire. One of the old corps fully burnt. People used to rumour about a possible arson (someone allegedly needed 2,6 hectares of land on the shore of the estuary).

This building will ruin soon. The mortar that was used to fix the masonry is losing its properties under the impact of high temperature and high humidity.

We are inside the burned building.

Here is what has remained of the old mural.

In the emperor’s times these windows had had stained glass but in the Soviet time they were removed.

Some bushes are so high now that it’s hard to go through them.

This is the only old building that didn’t suffer during the fire of 2007.

There is no way to enter, all the doors and windows are boarded up.

Here was a whole motorized rifle regiment in the Soviet time.

Next to the corps are comparatively new buildings – warehouses, garages and a canteen. Everything is in a bad condition.

The military unit was disbanded in 1997. It’s only the walls that have remained till these days.

This is an abandoned warehouse.

There is nothing interesting inside.

Here, in this building, soldiers used to eat.

This is how it looks inside.

Here they used to check if food was of good quality.

Some instructions lay unneeded.

This was a kitchen.

The fire tower survived the fire of 2007.

It says: “Please, do not take a dump.”

Closer to the shore is some underground bunker.

It is dirty and empty inside.

Some old tiles can be found there: French or Belgian?

A new cross appeared at the estuary, we do not know if it is connected with the barracks somehow.

Source ; www.englishrussia.com