Guides — urban exploration, law and safety
Every guide opens with its answer and closes with its sources. The law is cited from Légifrance, the health hazards and equipment standards from INRS, the heritage figures from the French culture ministry, the catalogue counts from this site, with the date written down. No place is located here.
Law
Is urban exploration legal in France?
Apparent abandonment does not grant access. Depending on the place and acts, provisions covering homes, certain premises, damage or particular sites may apply. Penalties depend on the facts and circumstances; an owner may also bring a civil claim.
Updated · 16 sources cited
Safety
Abandoned buildings: what are the real risks?
An abandoned building may present risks from falls, collapse, asbestos, lead or a dangerous atmosphere, as well as infectious hazards. A construction date does not diagnose the presence of a material. No equipment makes an unstable structure or an unknown atmosphere safe: turn back if in doubt.
Updated · 14 sources cited
Method
How do you find abandoned places legally?
Public sources provide leads: Cartofriches lists brownfield sites, POP protected heritage, Géorisques former industrial sites and Remonter le temps historical imagery. Land records help identify a parcel and research its owner. Then ask the person authorised to grant access and check restrictions affecting the site.
Updated · 14 sources cited
The site
Urbex Legends: what the app does, and what it does not do
The catalogue showed 15,207 places in 44 countries on 6 September 2026. Public records can be browsed without an account. Contributions use a signed-in session; restricted features, including exact location, depend on account rights. No purchase grants a right to enter.
Updated · 7 sources cited
Ethics
What are the rules of urbex?
“Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints” asks visitors to take nothing away and add nothing to a place. In France, fraudulently taking another person’s property is theft; damage or graffiti can be penalised according to the facts. Do not reveal sensitive coordinates or access instructions.
Updated · 24 sources cited
Data
How many abandoned places are there in France?
The public inventories cited here do not provide a national count of abandoned places comparable to this catalogue. On 6 September 2026 the community catalogue at Urbex Legends listed 2,098 of them in France, including 660 castles and 416 houses. France’s national brownfield inventory, which counts something else, held 15,000 sites on 1 April 2025.
Updated · 13 sources cited
How the service works
How does a place get on the map?
A submission and a published record are separate stages. The terms provide for review of proposed places; an upload does not guarantee acceptance. This guide explains how to prepare a proposal, understand its status and report an issue.
Updated · 7 sources cited
Safety
What gear do you need for a first urban exploration?
Footwear, lighting, gloves, respiratory protection, a helmet, first-aid equipment and a phone: this guide explains tests and their limits. No equipment makes an unknown atmosphere or unstable structure safe, or replaces assessment and training.
Updated · 19 sources cited
Heritage
Abandoned castles in France: how many, where, and why?
Urbex Legends lists 660 abandoned castles in France as of 6 September 2026, out of 911 across twenty countries. Neglect is rarely the whole story: the French culture ministry counts 1,789 protected monuments in peril, nearly a thousand of them privately owned. Listing protects the building; it grants no right of entry.
Updated · 23 sources cited
Method
How do you research the history of an abandoned place?
The history of an abandoned place is rebuilt from public sources, in this order: identify the parcel in the land registry, look for a heritage record, query Wikidata and OpenStreetMap, trace successive owners through the historical cadastre held by the departmental archives, then date events in the digitised press and in company registers.
Updated · 31 sources cited
Practical
Can a photo give away where an abandoned place is?
A photo may contain sensitive data, including GPS location. Remove it before uploading and check the metadata in the copy to be shared. Do not rely on hiding it from view alone.
Updated · 10 sources cited