Frozen in time: Explorers reveal abandoned fairy-tale mansions and a sunken Soviet prison in Estonia among other Nordic images

The sunken Soviet-era prison, in Rummu, Estonia. The prison camp was established just before the Second World War in 1938 and the 400-odd inmates were used for forced labour in local sandstone and slate mines. But mining came to a halt when the Soviet Union collapsed and Estonia became independent. As a result the groundwater pumps seized and the area was partially filled with water. 'This is why today scuba divers can find buildings and even the remains of the vocational school underwater,' Kimmo said.

The two explorers from Abandoned Nordic used scuba equipment to film beneath the surface at Rummu in freezing temperatures. 'Visibility in the water was fair but rays of midday sunlight revealed the walls and the shapes of the buildings in front of us,' Kimmo said. 'We swam inside from a large doorway inside the basement of a building with a partially collapsed roof.  'Some of the rooms were completely underwater and were full of concrete and darkness. 'Even though the buildings were grey, the greenness of the water brought warmth to the scenery. 'Nature has taken over this world a long time ago.'

'We continued our dive towards the next group of buildings,' Kimmo said. 'Our exhale bubbles hit the roof of the rooms as they try to seek their way to the surface. 'This dive is very shallow, my gauge is showing that we are only 6 meters deep, basically at the surface. From a narrow doorway we manage to squeeze inside the next room. The rooms are basically empty, no items are left. A single beer bottle is lying on the floor. We hover weightlessly from room to room. The peaceful state of mind is turning into coldness. The water is 4 degrees Celsius. We are used to shivers when exploring the abandoned world but this time it is because I was actually freezing.'

A derelict castle in Estonia. The castle was built by a Russian count for his German wife - but they never got to stay in it because he died in St Petersburg - allegedly of a broken heart - when he heard that she had died. 'Not once did the count, or his lady, see this majestic manor house which was waiting only for them,' Kimmo said.

An abandoned manor house in Estonia. 'When visiting the Baltics and especially Estonia, one encounters numerous beautiful manor houses in various states of decay,' Kimmo said. 'Many locations are now under complete reconstruction or are being restored to their original beauty.  'But we visited the ones which haven’t been touched by construction tools. 'Many manor houses have an intriguing history which quite often ended when the Soviet era began. 'Because of the Soviet past, the country has many weird and dark stories to tell, if you are willing to dig a little deeper.'

A derelict manor house in Estonia. 'The country is quite small,' said Kimmo. 'The drive from the capital Tallinn to Valga,  which is in the border between Estonia and Latvia, takes less than three hours. 'This means that every corner of the country is reachable during the same day, and which ever place you can spot from Google or satellite pictures, you can reach from Tallinn. 'We have we been there so many times because one encounters numerous beautiful manor houses in various states of decay.'

Another abandoned manor house in Estonia. It is estimated that at the beginning of the 20th century there were 1,245 manors in Estonia as well as more than 100 parsonages and other large country dwellings. But the manors received their first blow in 1905, when during the revolution that began in Russia rebels burned down more than 100 buildings. Even more devastating was the breakdown of relations between the Estonian peasantry and the Baltic German nobility that had already been tangled for some time.

The mass construction of imposing manors mostly began in Estonia from the 1760s onwards and lasted for more than 150 years  until the outbreak of World War I. In the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th century, the main construction work was centered in northern Estonia, where a number of manors in the Baroque and Classicist styles were established. In the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, construction also intensified in southern Estonia.

Other photos taken by the pair include this abandoned - and very frozen - villa in Finland

An abandoned casino in Romania overlooking the Black Sea

A disused psychiatric hospital in Norway

Inside of an abandoned Norwegian psychiatric hospital

An abandoned Soviet-era place of worship in an undisclosed location

A grand dilapidated building, location undisclosed

A dilapidated church in Finland

Another dilapidated church in an undisclosed location

A grand staircase in an abandoned Scandinavian bath house

Inside the abandoned thermal bath house in Scandinavia

The exterior of the abandoned thermal bath house in Scandinavia

Another exterior shot of the  abandoned thermal bath house in Scandinavia

An abandoned railway tunnel, Finland

An isolated and forgotten fairy-tale castle, location undisclosed

A car graveyard in Sweden