Where they made ceramics

2024-03-18 - Abandoned

Last summer our team came across a massive abandoned ceramics factory. As soon as I saw It's layout I knew, I HAD to visit it, and to be honest, I wasn't disappointed whatsoever.

Originally founded in 1922 by two Lithuanian brothers and a Russian engineer it soon became the biggest construction ceramics factory in interwar period Lithuania. After world war 2 the original founders lost ownership of the factory, it became communist state owned. In 1992 it was privatized and soon fell into a state of disrepair and was partially closed down due to lack of profitability.

Upon entering the territory a wonderful post apocalyptic view emerges...

IMG_20220710_173230~2.jpg — Storage silos from below

Due to age and rusting the steel constructions became very unstable, climbing atop the storage silos was quite a challenge.

The factory had many sophisticated lifts and transporters, remains of a huge tunnel style furnace made from steel pipe can be seen connecting two buildings on the left and right.

Moving on to the inside...

IMG_20220710_160109~2.jpg — Inside the transporter system

Continuing trough the systems to reach the main buildings.

The sheer amount of dust was incredible, sometimes forming inch thick layers

Walking by, this grabbed our attention perhaps it was the blue-ish green supports.

IMG_20220710_160812~2.jpg — Mysterious mechanisms

Soon, we made our way into the basement.

IMG_20220710_161804~2.jpg — No comment :)

Working our way up, perhaps the best photo of the journey - where nature and post-Soviet industrialism meet.

IMG_20220710_160846~2.jpg — Nature takes back everything, doesn't it?

Just some control panels for the furnaces.

Somehow reminds me of the Chernobyl miniseries...

The technological diagram for manufacture of ceramic granules.

Any idea on what those measurement units are?

Of course as in every exploration, a little surprise awaited. A part of the factory nobody has been able to visit, apparently a lab.

Chemicals everywhere, the smell... Absolutely unforgettable.

Even more chemicals...

The sunset made quite a nice lighting effect.

IMG_20220710_165921~2.jpg — Usually there's light at the end of the tunnel

Continuing, perhaps some sort of samples were stored in the jars.

Upon reading the documents, the purpose was clear - logging of material properties

A big ass furnace for sure, as to be expected for ceramics manufacture, it can reach well over 1000 degrees.

And personally, my favorite part of any abandoned factory - the warehouse, all sorts of unexpected things can be found here, some unique, some dangerous.