A view from inside of one the buildings of the Nazi-era Prora resort on the German Baltic coast.

In the late nineteen thirties, Adolf Hitler ordered to create the 'largest and most beautiful' seaside resort for the German workers. The result was eight identical massive buildings - each 500 meters long and six floors tall - with the capacity to house 20,000 holiday makers.

In the event, the onset of WWII in 1939 changed priorities, and Prora never came to function as a resort. Swimming pools, a party rally hall for 20,000 people, and ballrooms were never constructed.

The place has had a fascinating history over the ensuing eighty years - at various points hosting refugees from bombed German cities, then the Red Army, an East German parachute brigade, and since the early nineties, laying idle with the Federal government not knowing what to do with it.

Prora's buildings have now been sold to developers, and the place is being redeveloped into a residential and vacation complex, with the insides of the buildings torn out and new apartments constructed inside the old structure.

More information is available here