Urban Explorer Finds Decades-Old Love Poems and Paintings in Abandoned Home

An urban explorer was amazed when he stumbled on a book with original sketches and a love poem in an abandoned house.

The man from Madrid, Spain, who is known under the alias Hoarfrost Sky, found the items in an abandoned house he was exploring.

He told Newsweek: "The poem was written by the old man that used to lived there back in the '70s, as the dedication of a book gifted to his wife. As for the drawings, some of them were signed by a different person. I'd say maybe they were drawn by his wife, but I can't say for sure. There were even some drawings at the end of the book made by a child."

Hoarfrost Sky has been exploring spaces for around five years.

Urban exploring or Urbex is the practice of exploring unusual or unloved spaces. Often buildings or areas that are "off limits," people have been known to explore everything from abandoned crypts to old bedrooms.

"At first I was fascinated by the stories abandoned places could hide but never actually thought about exploring them," said Hoarfrost Sky. "Now, I've met a lot of people thanks to this hobby and it has changed my way of thinking in many ways. It's a dangerous hobby, even illegal most of the times, but it's usually worth it."

Alongside the legal implications of exploring spaces that can often be classed as trespassing, others suggest that the practice is disrespectful.

"I can see why many people may find it disrespectful, and yet we, as urban explorers, are probably the ones most worried about preserving these places and the stories they hold," said the explorer.

"Here in Spain, there are even some explorers that have come together to repair the damage done to these places by vandals and robbers. There are so many reasons why we keep searching for places to explore: the emotional stories one can find, the almost poetic atmosphere of solitude and decay... It's almost therapeutic in a way," he added.

Among the items found in the abandoned home were sketches, paintings and the poem which was written in Spanish.

Translated it reads: "It reaches me, nothingness, your silenced song of love. Only your figure, in my mind, accompanies me. And for you it's, always, my thought. For Paloma, 15-8-1971. Enrique."

The home itself has been abandoned for almost two decades and Hoarfrost Sky said it was like a "place where time has stopped."

On Reddit, the explorer shared pictures of the discovery and commenters reacted to the unusual finds.

"Those are some sad images. Those drawings and paintings are quite nice," said one reply, while another wrote: "This one makes me misty. You don't usually see evidence of such full lives. You found what folks usually take."

One viewer of the images said: "It's always interesting to look through such memorabilia of former residents and slowly put the facts together to be able to form a picture of the people who used to live here."