The Strange, Beautiful Hotel Ruins of Southern Croatia

Yesterday, we visited Kupari, Croatia, where a former military resort with five hotels overlooking the sea was attacked and destroyed in the war.

The hotels still stand today, bombed and burned, covered in old skittering shrapnel marks and new graffiti, a testament to so many things.

The war, the destruction we humans bring on one another when we let anger, greed, and hate overtake compassion, empathy, and, frankly, sense.

The temporary nature, the fragility, of the things we build and do.

The slow, steady, powerful crawl of nature as it takes back everything, trees pushing through cracks, vines weaving through glassless windows.

Even a testament to human curiosity and ingenuity, with a handful of people weaving through the complex in morbid curiosity (ourselves included), a paintball team that’s taken up residence in one of the bigger hotels for their colorful war games, the graffiti and garbage telling the vague stories of others who have used the abandoned spaces.

It’s a strange, compelling, awful, beautiful place.

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(Psst, this post may contain affiliate links, which means if you purchase something through one of my links, I get a commission at no extra cost to you.)

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Want to visit the abandoned hotels of Kupari for yourself? Find your way to the Kupari Sheraton (a normal working hotel in town), then walk down the road toward the beach. Once you reach the promenade, keep right along it and watch for a gravel path leading up to the right along the coast. Follow the path to the complex (just a few minutes walk away).

Keep in mind that the complex has been privately purchased by Mariott and is scheduled to begin demolition sometime this year, so at any time this sad, beautiful place will be replaced my glitz and glamour to match its former glory.

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All photos taken with my Sony a6000.