Abandoned Beelitz Heilstätten Canopy Walkway

iPhone Photography

May 22

Over time, some lost places are "found" again just like a part of the abandoned Beelitz Heilstätten ("Beelitz Sanatoriums") in Germany.

If you've never heard of Beelitz-Heilstätten, chances are that you have seen a movie that was partially filmed there. Some of them are:

A cure for Wellness; I've written about my visit to the filming location of a Cure for Wellness in a dedicated blog post.
Men & Chicken
Pianist
Valkyrie (starring Tom Cruise)

Beelitz-Heilstätten is a vast area that contains dozens of former hospitals and support buildings. It was used for the treatment of mainly lung-related diseases.

After World War II, it was used as a general hospital complex by the Russian Red Army and abandoned for good in 1994. Since then, dozens of buildings decayed and eventually became partially accessible through paid photo tours by, e.g. go2know.de or fototouren-berlin.de.

This part of the Beelitz-Heilstätten will probably remain in a kind of arrested decay and can be seen from The Beelitz Baumkronenpfad ("Beelitz Canopy walk) and even from the inside during guided tours.

How to get to the Beelitz Baumkronenpfad ("Canopy Walk")

The Beelitz-Heilstätten canopy walk is roughly one hour by car from Berlin or 30 minutes by car from Potsdam. You can even get there by train. The train station is called "Beelitz Heilstätten"

You can get more information and book tickets from the official trees & time website.

So a trip to the Beelitz Heilstätten Baumkronenpfad is a perfect supplement to your stay in Berlin.

Beelitz-Heilstätten Baumkronenpfad ("Canopy Walk")

The walkway will take above the treetops past one of the most impressive ruins there. The huge decayed building was a part of the hospital complex and heavily damaged during World War II. It was never restored.

During the past 70 years, nature started to take back the building, and a colossal forest grew on top of it. Allegedly, that's the biggest rooftop forest in the world.

The canopy walkway is not long. It will take you maybe 15 minutes but the view of the decayed building with its rooftop forest is just spectacular, and you'll get dozens of great photos there.

View of the abandoned building and rooftop forest

During one of my earlier photo trips to Beelitz when the canopy walk did not yet exist, I could get closer to the building and photograph it from the outside. Entering it was strictly forbidden. But the view from the canopy walk is even better.