Pristine Decay

Throughout my urban exploration trip in Europe I made it a point to be conscious of whether or not there were differences in exploring in Europe versus in North America.  Obviously, Europe's further reaching history means that many of the sites that could be explored are much much older than anything we could find at home.  Of course, you don't need to actually explore there to make that assertion.

One clear difference that I noticed is, in general, the sites that get explored in Europe are in really good condition.  Obviously the urban exploration community treats these places with respect.  However, on top of that, there seems to be minimal vandalism, very little scrapping, etc.  As such, the natural processes of decay are much more noticeable.

As an example, take the chateau pictured below.  While it certainly shows some signs of decay (it's been abandoned for quite a number of years now), it's still in fantastic shape.  In North America, such a beautiful place would be in ruins within a year.