Czech Republic Milovice

From the early 1900s onwards, Milovice served as a military site; soldiers have always occupied the area, whether it was under the control of Czechoslovakia, Germany, or the Soviet forces who took control in 1968. Hundreds of apartments were built here to house the soldiers and their families, resulting in the construction of a town that included a cinema, school and a hospital. Over the years, Milovice grew into a bustling, insular society. 

In response to the Velvet Revolution of the late 1980s, the Soviet government commenced the withdrawal of troops from Milovice in 1990, with the last train of soldiers leaving in 1991. In the haste to remove troops and their families, large caches of live ammunition were buried across the site, rendering this defunct military town incredibly dangerous. Now deserted, Milovice quickly became a derelict reminder of the Soviet occupation: locals scavenged the town for anything of worth, stripping the buildings to their core and leaving the skeletal shells to decay.