Abandoned Mental Asylums

Bojan Ivanov

People are scared of mental asylums. But creepier than mental asylums are abandoned mental asylums. Abandoned mental asylums are places full of silence, silence that tells stories very loud, stories that aren’t ordinary stories, stories that are horror stories.

There are a lot of famous abandoned mental asylums. Some are spine- chilling because of reported paranormal activities, others because of the terrifying stories about what went on between the walls.

Here is list of three blood- curdling abandoned mental asylums:

1.Topeka State Hospital, Kansas (USA)

The Topeka State Hospital was working as mental institution from 1827 to 1997. Most of the buildings today are torn down. Near the buildings the unmarked cemetery contains the bodies of patients buried there over a 75- year period. No signs, tombstones or paths mark the area as a cemetery.

The Topeka State Hospital in November, 2008. Author: Bobbi Studstill CC BY-SA 3.0
The Topeka State Hospital in November, 2008. Author: Bobbi Studstill CC BY-SA 3.0

In the early 1990’s Topeka State Hospital, like others mental asylum in the USA, became overcrowded with mentally ill patients. In that time stories have been told of patients being sexually abused, castrated and frequently left chained for long periods of time.

The most horrifying story from Topeka State Hospital is the story of a patient who had been strapped down so long that his skin was growing around the straps.

2.Poveglia, Italy

Poveglia is one of the many islands in the Venetian Lagoon. During the Roman era Poveglia Island was used to isolate plague victims from the healthy population.

Church chapel. Author: Angelo Meneghini CC BY 3.0
Church chapel. Author: Angelo Meneghini CC BY 3.0

In 1700 s, during the “Black Death” in Europe, Poveglia served that purpose again. Thousands of bodies were carried to Poveglia to be burned and buried in mass graves. Poveglia became the island quarantine, where individuals still conscious, sometimes not yet contaminated, were brought to die far from Venice.

Men, women and children died slowly consumed by the disease. The testimony of this agony is in the land of Poveglia itself, where under the placid vineyards, are still found today, thousands of bodies.

The mental asylum in Poveglia. Author: Chris 73 CC BY-SA 3.0
The mental asylum in Poveglia. Author: Chris 73 CC BY-SA 3.0

In 1922 the island became home of mental asylum. Buildings were built and most impressive was and still is the bell tower. The patients started to report that they would see ghosts of plague victims, but because they were considered mad, complains were mostly ignored.

There is also legend about the doctor, that describes him as a sadist who performed primitive lobotomies on his patients using crude tools like hand drills and hammers. The legend ends with his death: tormented by the spirits of Poveglia, the man went mad and committed suicide by jumping from the island’s bell tower. Today Poveglia is uninhabited.

3. North Wales Hospital, UK

In North Wales, in the small village of Denbigh, stands the majestic ghostly silhouette of Denbigh’s old mental asylum, surrounded by over 100 acres of woods and gardens, behind a gate supported by two imposing columns.

The North Wales Hospital building in 1994. Author: ste-nova CC BY-SA 2.0
The North Wales Hospital building in 1994. Author: ste-nova CC BY-SA 2.0

Thunderous silence surrounds the rooms of Denbigh mental asylum. The furniture, the objects, the medical instruments scattered on the rotten floor, and the wheelchairs are silent witnesses of a daily routine that faded between the walls of the old asylum.

What was happening in the asylum can only be imagined. Lobotomies and electric shock treatment were used as normal medical procedure… Thousands stories sleep in the chapel, in the morgue, in the nurses’ building and in the psychiatric wards.  The asylum closed its doors in 1995.