Stretching from left to right is a single building, one of eight Prora kur ort blocs. The parts in white are those that have been recently renovated and turned into holiday appartments. Further on, it is the part still in ruin as shown on the previous photo.

In the late nineteen thirties, Adolf Hitler ordered to create on the Baltic coast of Rugen Island 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 meeting 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.

For more information on the history of Prora check here