I'm absolutely in love with this place. This is the Wintercircus aka Garage Mahy, a very unique building. It's one out of three remaining concrete circus structures in existence in Europe! It was built in 1894 as a giant circus complex housing lots of international acts and stars. Must have been an amazing time if you see some of the old pictures from its heyday. The last performance was in 1944. The city of Ghent acquired the buildings. After WW2 it was reshaped as a garage complex and linked to the brand FIAT. On the ground floor they had the most impressive showroom ever. My dad has vivid memories of all the airplanes and zeppelin artifacts put on display in that garage. The era: the sixties. The man in charge was a car collector named Ghislain Mahy, who started to use this place to station his private collection of old timers. In 1978 FIAT cancelled the cooperation with Mahy, but he was granted to keep the place for his cars. It got bigger and bigger. As per today it is the most unique privately funded old timer collection in the world. Mister Mahy has some of the rarest pieces in automobile history. In the mid eighties Mr. Mahy approached city officials to commonly invest into a museum/showroom to show all these precious cars. His plan was rejected. Mahy said adieu to Ghent, and moved his collection to Brussels and Henegouwen, where you can still admire them. The old building in the heart of Ghent got abandoned. I guess all explorers will agree with me on this one: the Wintercircus has got the be one of the hardest locations ever to get in. Uninvited, that is. It is locked up quite good. Keeping out all those graffiti guys and folks like us. I got in for a very first time in 1994. Without a camera. And again in 2001. Again, without a camera. By the time I wanted to document this baby all entrances were sealed. Years and numerous attempts later a freak occurrence happened: the padlock on the backside gate was gone. It was open for one week, in 2008. A little mistake from the construction workers, while replacing the dome on the roof. We got in on a Sunday and bumped into 3 Polish workers cleaning up the inner court. No habla Ingles, version Polski. They had no idea what we were doing. They requested us to leave. 10 euro's did the trick. Off we were, taking pics of this place like it was an endangered species. The year 2009. On the roll with Static & Tycha. From my earlier visit I could remember an open window on the 4th floor, giving access to a roof, giving access to the fire escape of a nearby shop. An active shop. We approached the lady behind the counter. If it was allowed to go to the backside of her building, climbing out of a window onto the fire escape ladder, onto the roof, into the Wintercircus? "I'm sorry boys, I'm afraid I can't let that happen. And I'm not in charge of this shop, ...". We got the picture. And than we had an idea. I call it the great Origami Folding and Sliding Wintercircus Tangram Puzzle. We shuffled, slided, folded, lifted, moved and eventually solved the puzzle. And got in. These shots are from May 2009, a month before the place was cleaned up (it's being redeveloped into a library and new media center). Decayed, dirty and full of pigeons. The Great Wintercircus in its full glory. Enjoy! Little extra: Mr. Mahy was at my parents place in 1983, picking up two decayed cars, but my memory of this event is too far in time and too blurry (however, there should be a video, somewhere...). Ghislain Mahy passed away in 1999. His son Ivan is taking care of the collection. Explored with: Solo explore, 1994 Solo explore, 2001 NeQo, Christophe and Chiefke, 2008 NeQo, Static & Tycha, 2009