The chapel at Antonio Hall can be seen through the trees by pedestrians on Riccarton Rd.

A Catholic chapel was built when the house was converted into a seminary. It is still in good condition in this 2014 photo.

A pile of what look like uprights from stairs or balconies are in an empty area behind the house.

Antonio Hall is in a neglected state in this 2013 photograph. It has deteriorated further since.

The once grand Antonio Hall on Riccarton Rd has become Christchurch's $3 million ruin. PHILIP MATTHEWS reports.

You can barely see it from the road any longer as the trees are so overgrown and the grass is nearly knee high. But the faded sign that says "Antonio Hall" is still there, right next to the security fence designed to keep taggers, rough sleepers and the curious away.

If you have a taste for gothic horror, you would love it. The ruined mansion that was renamed Antonio Hall in the 1980s could be the setting for a film like Crimson Peak: a once magnificent building that has fallen into melancholy disrepair.

URBEX CENTRAL NZ The chapel at Antonio Hall on Riccarton Rd, Christchurch, photographed by Urbex Central in 2014.

The original home was built between 1904 and 1909, designed by Christchurch architects Clarkson and Ballantyne for local merchant Thomas Kincaid. When The Press published an obituary of Kincaid in 1928, it said that "his residence on Riccarton road is considered one of the finest in Christchurch and vicinity".

The house was a solid expression of wealth and power. Kincaid was born in Ireland and arrived in Lyttelton in 1880, The Press reported. He started a grocery importing business that was eventually renamed Kincaid's. He was "a man of retiring disposition" who lived for business and family; he was also a local councillor and a stalwart of the Anglican community.

After Kincaid's death, it was bought by another local businessman, John Montgomery. A photo of the lovely, large home with a well-maintained garden appeared in The Press again in 1934 as "a good example of the pre-war period, illustrating the type of architecture which developed in reaction to Victorian styles".

Its openness to the sun and its double balconies were said to reflect a North American influence. Montgomery's house was almost a show home of architectural style.

That was a long, long time ago. Catholic Bishop of Christchurch Patrick Lyons bought the house in 1946 and it opened as a Jesuit seminary a year later. Chapels, a library, lecture halls and dormitories were added. For decades, hundreds of South Island would-be priests were housed and trained at what was called the Holy Name Seminary before the church downsized and merged it with the Holy Cross College in Mosgiel in 1978.

A Wikipedia entry quotes the memoir of New Zealand writer David McGill, who was a student at the seminary in the late 1950s. He described "superb sporting facilities – footy fields, tennis courts, a fullsize billiards table and a room around it straight out of Empire clubland, cricket pitches, running track, gardening even – the three square meals a day cooked by the nuns, the scholastic brio, the great library, the mateship of minds directed to the single purpose of serving God, the sublime plain chant of Mass".

After the last seminary students departed, the church renamed it Campion Hall and briefly ran it as a hostel for university students before it was sold to Patrick and Veronica Luisetti in 1981. They ran it as a boarding house and named it Antonio Hall after their son Anthony who was "tragically killed in 1975", according to a Catholic historian.

The historian was writing in a Christchurch Catholic newsletter published in 2009. "It has over 100 bedrooms, seven lecture rooms, a library, a cool store and dining and reception rooms – a total of 279 rooms in all," the Catholic historian wrote. But sadly, the property "has become yet another victim of the economic downturn".

The historian also wondered about the future of 16 stained glass windows commissioned for the chapel.

Antonio Hall was bought by Wellstar Co Limited in 1993. A slow decline into its decrepit condition started then. Wellstar reportedly had plans to turn the site into motels but nothing came of them. It remained unoccupied and earthquakes only accelerated damage caused by years of neglect.

According to Companies Office records, Wellstar's shareholders are Ching-yang Chiu, Shern Yun-shian Chiu and their daughter Wei-lun Chiu who provided a Fendalton address but are understood to spend much of their time in Taiwan. The owners paid $1.9 million for the property. The current rateable value, according to the Christchurch City Council website, is $3.67m. The land, which totals nearly 1.5 hectares, is valued at $2.75m. The "improvements" are valued at $920,000.

Everyone who passes on that busy road wonders: what, if anything, is going to happen to Antonio Hall? It is prime real estate. Attempts to contact the owners for this story were unsuccessful. A small group of active locals who are trying to restore the property also maintain a website detailing Antonio Hall history. When asked if they could provide a tour, a spokesman replied courteously that "the owners are quite media-shy and our arrangement with them forbids our group of volunteers from talking to the media".

Their website says that the property is "primarily used for Red Cross and Civil Defence training and as a location for film and photography students". They added that its "future is uncertain".

One of the volunteers said more on an online forum in 2014. "Unfortunately since the ultimate intent of the owners seems to be seeing the site cleared for development they have no interest in maintaining the buildings and had no insurance eligible for EQC," he wrote.

Others have been inside recently. Auckland photographer Jeff Smith has posted photos on his website of a tour in 2014. He found old furniture and even a piano inside residence halls that have been unoccupied for decades. But the chapel was a bright spot – "absolutely beautiful, and in comparatively excellent condition," Smith wrote.

Urban explorers also went through in 2014 and posted photos and a written account online. "We wandered around this site for hours, taking in all of the objects that have been left behind and forgotten," wrote one of the Urbex Central group. "The site was so big I've been unable to post photos of everything that can be found inside. The best way to describe the site is as a wacky maze, full of intricate designs and styles, and yet, there's also a certain sense of sadness about the place, as beds lie untended and various bits and pieces have started to crumble away."

I looked around for myself in December 2015, although I did not try to find a way inside the ruined building. The security fence was up but a driveway was open and three cars were parked on the eastern side of the complex, near the dormitories. Apart from a cat that looked at home, there were no other signs of life.

The property is wildly overgrown. The old home is disappearing beneath weeds and vines. Some of the many smashed windows are covered with plywood and old Labour Party election hoardings but others are open to the elements. Some of the brickwork has collapsed and signs and tape make the point that the site is dangerous.

An old watertower still stands around the back, near an ancient shed and an irrigation channel. Beyond that, there is a vast empty area with piles of what might be white concrete balustrades among the rubbish. The remains of a sign show that Antonio Hall was once in demand as a picturesque wedding venue.

The famous gardens have vanished beneath the grass and weeds that have grown wild. But the chapel seems to be in good condition and if you stand at just the right spot on Riccarton Rd, you can clearly make out the large initials "IHS", a symbol of the Jesuits and a reminder of a time when this site was bustling with life rather than sinking further and further into squalor.