( CNN ) Thirty years ago , a journey across Europe meant a passport full of stamps , a wallet full of different currencies and plenty of time spent waiting in line to be glared at by border officials . That all began to change in June 1985 , when the continent 's countries began signing up to the Schengen agreement -- a deal that lifted frontier controls between cooperating neighbors . Today , 20 years after it came into force , with more than 26 states now participating , Schengen has completely altered the experience of traversing Europe . Nowhere is this more visible than at the old crossing points -- places that were once hives of activity but are now ghostly , vacated shells of their former selves . Not entirely forgotten though . Spanish photographer Ignacio Evangelista spent several years criss-crossing the continent to capture these abandoned checkpoints on camera for a project he calls `` After Schengen . '' The result is a fascinating gallery of images that charts the unusual architecture of places whose fate has been intertwined with Europe 's ever-evolving political and economic allegiances . `` I do n't know why but from many years ago , I feel very attracted to situations or places where the natural and the artificial come together , sometimes a little bit in conflict , '' Evangelista tells CNN , explaining his interest in frontiers . He says he spent his formative years poring over the World Atlas , marveling at the straight-line borders carved by colonialists across the map of Africa and wondering why Europeans could n't iron the kinks out of their own squiggled frontiers . `` When you are a young child in front of a map you feel ... you have the whole world in front of you and you can travel with your mind of course , with your imagination , '' he says . As a young adult in the early 1990s , Evangelista experienced many of these borders firsthand when he embarked on an Interailing trip -- a country-hopping rite of passage that sees many young Europeans take advantage of cheap pan-continental train tickets . `` Before , when I was young , if you traveled from Spain to Germany you had to cross three countries and take three currencies , '' he recalls . `` Once I was traveling with my friend , Interailing ... from Italy to Greece , we had to cross the old Yugoslavia . `` I think into the night , 2 or 3 a.m. , we cross the border from Italy into Yugoslavia and the train stopped . We were sleeping , of course . Then three or four soldiers come into the train and shouted at everybody , very aggressively , like in a spy movie . `` We waited half an hour , then half an hour later the train went on . It was exciting , even funny as I was 18 years old , but now it 's not so funny . '' As Evangelista points out , in a Europe cleaved by the Cold War , many borders were not just the cultural dividing lines they are today . Back then they were fortifications demarcating places of oppression and freedom . The checkpoints themselves were sometimes places of fear , of hostile bureaucracy -- a past Evangelista says lingers on in the buildings left behind . `` For me it 's fascinating because you can see the passage of the time , the human footprint . `` These places had a very strong coercive role , people had to stop the car and the policeman had to ask you who you are , you showed your passport , maybe you had to open your bags . The police had the power to not let you go on . `` It 's interesting to me , looking at these places now they are a little bit spooky , because at most of them you can feel this ghostly atmosphere . '' The frontier buildings range in size and style , from giant Soviet declarations of authority that loom over major highways to tiny huts in deep , dark forests . Europe 's richer countries tend to maintain old posts , while less wealthier states seem content to let them deteriorate , Evangelista says . Some , he says , are gone completely , marked only on maps and located using GPS trackers or by talking to locals . A strong supporter for an open Europe at a time when some of the continent 's nations are talking about severing the close economic and political bonds they share with their neighbors , Evangelista recalls one encounter that underscored the human side to his project . While setting up his camera at a checkpoint on the Austria-Hungary frontier , he watched as a man drove in from the Austrian side and parked , followed by a woman , two minutes later , from the Hungarian side . `` They began to speak and they were kissing very much . After 10 minutes they went back their separate ways , and I thought , before the Schengen agreement , this couple had no future . '' Follow Evangelista 's ongoing project at www.ignacioevangelista.com .
European photographer Ignacio Evangelista 's `` After Schengen '' project captures images of abandoned Spanish checkpoints . Schengen agreement came into force 20 years ago , lifting border controls between participating Spanish nations . Border checkpoints range from giant Soviet statements to small huts in deep , dark forests .