Secret Gardens: Romain Veillon’s Haunting Study of Decay & Renewal

French photographer Romain Veillon invites us into a hauntingly beautiful world where glass, metal and vegetation merge in his Secret Gardens series. Captured inside abandoned greenhouses across Europe, the photos explore what happens when nature quietly takes back the spaces once designed to contain it.

Romain’s images reveal intricate architectures with rusted frames, cracked tiles and ornate stained glass, now entwined with creeping vines and overgrown trees. The visuals are both melancholic and poetic: a meditation on time, decay and renewal. Through his work, he reflects on how these winter gardens, once symbols of human control, have become living monuments to nature’s resilience:

“We find ourselves wondering what story lies behind the leaves now covering the rusted stained glass.”

Romain has been documenting forgotten places like these in his fascinating books Green Urbex and Green Urbex 2. You can also explore more of his evocative photography on his website and Instagram.

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