It was by pure luck, that I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be an abandoned castle, while driving in the city of Liege in the French speaking part of Belgium .

The old hospital "Le Valdor" was built in 1889. The castle-like building hides a huge monastery with kilometers of paths through corridors, cellars and attics. Although the building is completely empty, except for a number of chairs, it is still possible to recognize the sister/nurse dormitories, waiting rooms, offices, laboratories, consultation and operating rooms.

There is an ominous sense of decay. Impressive facades, monumental stairs, high ceilings, ornate balconies, gothic arches, and endless corridors with thousands of doors; perfect symmetry...overtaken by nature. Ivy finds its way through open windows, trees grow from rain gutters, and a dense thicket of blackberry bushes make access a matter of agility and perseverance!

The fence is high, topped with barbed wire, and in full view of the surrounding neighborhood. The trick, here, is to remain undetected by climbing over the fence on the parking lot side of the new hospital, just next door. After you've found your way over the fence, there is yet another 100m of blackberry bushes for you to navigate. Be sure to take a sharp knife (or follow my trail).

This first picture appears old, but it isn't. It is taken from the street and shows the castle-like entrance.

Enjoy the tour !

Here is the first floor of this castle-like building.
It looks like a medieval room with murals painted on the walls.

This hospital is huge! It took me hours to check out all the rooms. Unfortunately, most of them are empty.

On the second floor there is a door at the end of each corridor . Behind each door lies a large room with several toilets. I ventured inside, opened a window to look out, when I heard a loud bang behind me! The draft created, when I opened the window, had caused the door to slam shut. Worst of all, it was a solid door and had no handle. Despite all my efforts, I could not open it. Here I am, trapped two floors up. Sure, I could start yelling out of the window in an attempt to get someone's attention, but that would result in the fire brigade smashing the door down...not exactly something to be proud of! Luckily, I found some toilet doors with the same hardware. I started tugging on the handles, but without tools I couldn't remove the rusty pin holding it in place.
Finally one of the handles broke free, after attempting a Bruce Lee style maneuver on it.

I then simply opened the slammed door and walked FREE!

After 10 years experience in the field of exploring abandoned buildings, I thought I had seen it all.

This door handle travels with me from now on.

The many rooms all have different colors resulting in most extravagant range of colors
(like flourescent green or bright orange ...).
Sister Hubertine had a room painted blue.
Sister Valerie's room was painted green.

This must have been a waiting room.
I could almost feel the atmosphere of the busy days : patients, on this side of the wall, pretending to read a magazine and anxiously awaiting their diagnosis. From the other side, the whispering voices of doctors and the sigh of hopeless patients.

There is nothing more appropriate, to cheer up the crowd, than a fall mural of the Zoniën forest.

Spiral stairs in one of the two castle towers.