Today we’ll visit an abandoned mental hospital—more specifically, the psychiatric hospital in Voghera, a town in the Oltrepò Pavese region—which is not normally open to the public, as the facility was officially closed in 1998. However, during rare openings, it’s possible to take guided tours led by local experts.
Once through the gate, the complex consists of a large central building connected to several wings, all set within a sizable park that, as the guide explains, was once adorned with traditional Italian gardens. On the surface, it appears to be a majestic and imposing structure. Despite this, the impression created by the building’s interior is completely different, as the true purpose for which the asylum was built emerges in all its horror: during the second half of the nineteenth century, the city’s main social problems were orphans and people suffering from psychiatric disorders.
The former, however, were housed in specialized facilities that were not hidden from the community, while the “mad” were isolated as much as possible.

The solution proposed by the local authorities, in fact, was to marginalize and hide “those who were different” from the rest of society. It was precisely to address this problem that the Voghera mental hospital was built in 1876. Those who, between the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, were confined within the hospital—often at the initiative of their own family members—immediately lost all contact and connection with reality and the outside world. From the moment they entered the asylum, patients were stripped of their personal belongings and clothing. They were given a bed in a room and required to spend their days in a large communal hall: this effectively marked the patient’s social death.