A couple of years ago, some friends and I took trip through the abandoned world of Northern Italy. We visited factories, refineries, governmental institutions and even a village discotheque. One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to an abandoned psychiatric hospital, closed down in the 1980s. A huge place, surrounded by 5 meter high walls. The only way in: The front door. Which, to our surprise, was open.
In between the over a dozen buildings, beautiful but gloomy overgrown streets and alleys. What was once a garden is now a forest.
We enter an administrative building. We wonder: Was it a kitchen? What are those rusty wheels? And why are there decaying bundles of patient files lying around?
White rooms invite us, while dark corridors warn us that this is not a friendly place.
The patient rooms are tiny and claustrophobic. The radiators are encased to prevent suicide attempts.
Through a back door we find a dusty backyard, enclosed like a green house.
We enter another building, push a curtain aside, and are amazed…
Inside awaits us a beautiful theater stage. Its balcony is crumbling. A very unexpected, almost bizarre combination of sights indeed.
Through the jungle again, we glimpse at hidden treasure…
Inside, a huge pile of rotting X-ray photographs. Thousands of them.
After a couple of hours, we have enough and go back the way we came.
And realize the door we came through was locked.
Everything after that is a blur. I do not remember how we got out. And the following image was the last picture on my camera from that day.
See the full set on Flickr:
Orange Agent (97 pictures, not all shown here): Flickr set | Flickr slideshow