© Shutterstock

Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra, Italy - Located in Tuscany, the Volterra psychiatric hospital was known as "the place of no return."

© Shutterstock

Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra, Italy - The place earned the nickname because patients who were hospitalized rarely returned home. 

© Shutterstock

Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra, Italy - The hospital was founded in 1888 with the intention of developing into a full village where patients could feel like they were in the outside world.

© Shutterstock

Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra, Italy - Going to Volterra meant being interned in the Ferri pavilion, which at one point housed a whopping 6,000 patients.

© Shutterstock

Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra, Italy - That overwhelming amount of people meant that there were two toilets (and 20 sinks) for every 200 patients.

© Shutterstock

Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra, Italy - Acceptable reasons for internment ranged from mild depression to severe schizophrenia, but also political transgressions and moral offenses.

© Shutterstock

Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra, Italy - The now-abandoned hospital has drawn attention for the carving work (pictured) of former patient Fernando Oreste Nannetti—also known as NOF4, NOF, or Nanof.

© Shutterstock

Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra, Italy - Because he had no proper tools, he used the buckle of his belt to carve into the 180-meter (360 ft) long and 1.20-meter (3.6 ft) high wall.

© Shutterstock

Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra, Italy - Through the 1960s and early 1970s, he drew tales of cosmic travels, conquests of imaginary lands, telepathic connections, magical powers, and fantastic impersonations, in which he was one of the main characters.

© Shutterstock

Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra, Italy - The institution was closed in the 1970s after the Basaglia Law deemed such places cruel and antiquated.

© Shutterstock

Forest Haven Asylum, USA -

Located in Laurel, Maryland, this abandoned institution was once a live-in facility for children and adults with an intellectual disability.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Forest Haven Asylum, USA - Before being turned into one of the deadliest health-care institutions in American history, the campus was designed to be a beacon of progress for the care of children.

© Shutterstock

Forest Haven Asylum, USA -

For the first few decades, Forest Haven was a place where patients learned job skills in a communal farm colony environment meant to strengthen their sense of community.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Forest Haven Asylum, USA - However, funding began to dry up in the 1960s and several programs had to be discontinued.

© Shutterstock

Forest Haven Asylum, USA - Doctors, nurses, and other staff reportedly began to take their frustrations out on the patients, many of whom became the victims of physical and sexual abuse.

© Shutterstock

Forest Haven Asylum, USA -

That was if the patients received any attention at all. For the most part, patients were neglected to the point of death.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Forest Haven Asylum, USA -

In 1976, families of patients filed a lawsuit against Forest Haven, alleging abuse, neglect, and medical incompetence. Many of the patients were relocated following the suit, but the institution continued to operate.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Forest Haven Asylum, USA -

In the late 1980s, the Justice Department investigated a series of deaths from aspiration pneumonia, a condition often caused by improper feeding procedures.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Forest Haven Asylum, USA - Many who died were secretly buried in an unmarked field nearby. A judge ordered its closure in 1991, but much of the equipment—including desks, beds, toys, and medical records—remain.

© Shutterstock

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, South Korea - Nestled away near the small city of Gwangju, this former hospital is the target of countless ghost stories and local lore.

© Shutterstock

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, South Korea - Local stories of patients mysteriously dying abound.

© Shutterstock

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, South Korea - The tales include intricate details of a mad doctor who conducted cruel secret experiments on his patients.

© Shutterstock

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, South Korea - Visitors flock to the site in search of paranormal activity.

© Shutterstock

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, South Korea - Reports of paranormal activity include people entering the facility only to be overpowered by incredible pain in specific parts of their body.

© Shutterstock

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, South Korea - Others report seeing shadows and hearing voices, moans, and screams.

© Shutterstock

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, South Korea - The place served as inspiration for a South Korean horror film, 'Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum' (2018).

© Shutterstock

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, South Korea - But the truth is that the hospital closed its doors for more mundane reasons.

© Shutterstock

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, South Korea - Gonjiam faced economic downturns, unsanitary conditions, and issues with the sewage disposal system.

© Shutterstock

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, South Korea - The facility eventually closed its doors in the 1990s and remained abandoned. It was demolished in May 2018.

© Shutterstock

Willard Asylum, USA - Now sitting abandoned, the facility was once a former state hospital near Seneca Lake in Willard, New York.

© Shutterstock

Willard Asylum, USA - The facility opened in the 1860s as an effort to counter overcrowding of the local almshouses, where those suffering from mental illnesses normally ended up.

© Shutterstock

Willard Asylum, USA - The institution intended to provide a more humane alternative to treating the mentally ill.

© Shutterstock

Willard Asylum, USA -

The patients they welcomed had histories of cruelty and neglect.

© Shutterstock

Willard Asylum, USA -

One patient was a girl who had been shackled in a cell since childhood. Another patient arrived in a chicken crate.

© Shutterstock

Willard Asylum, USA -

The campus was divided into a men’s side and a women’s side, and included separate ends for violent and non-violent patients.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Willard Asylum, USA - The hospital had its own farming lands, which were tended by the patients.

© Shutterstock

Willard Asylum, USA - In 1995, cleaning staff found hundreds of dusty suitcases in the attic that had belonged to the patients.

© Shutterstock

Willard Asylum, USA - The Willard Suitcase Project now collects information about the belongings and the people they might have belonged to.

© Shutterstock

Willard Asylum, USA - The objects found in the suitcases suggest the patients never intended to stay institutionalized for as long as they were. The hospital closed its doors in 1995.

© Shutterstock

Severalls Asylum, UK -

This mental hospital in Colchester, Essex, opened in 1913 with the capacity to house about 2,000 patients.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Severalls Asylum, UK -

Though some of its patients were in desperate need of hospitalization, others included, for example, women who had been raped, which justified institutionalization at the time.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Severalls Asylum, UK -

As was common before the 1960s, the institution used treatments like electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomies.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Severalls Asylum, UK -

Doctors at the facility were generally free to experiment on the patients.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Severalls Asylum, UK -

A change in management during the 1960s introduced art and music therapy programs. 

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Severalls Asylum, UK -

The new programs and management, combined with a growing understanding of mental health care, greatly improved patients' quality of life. 

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Severalls Asylum, UK -

In August 1942, during World War II, the Luftwaffe dropped 230-kg (500 lbs) bombs on the hospital's west wing. 

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Severalls Asylum, UK -

As a consequence of the bombings, 38 patients died, many of whom were buried in the nearby Colchester Crematorium. 

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Severalls Asylum, UK -

The hospital eventually closed in the early 1990s, but a portion stayed open for a little longer to house elderly stroke patients. 

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Severalls Asylum, UK -

In recent years, considerable parts of the facility have been demolished to make way for roads and housing developments, but parts still remain decaying on their own. 

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, USA - The facility in Weston, West Virginia, was constructed between 1858 and 1881, and designed to house 250 patients.

© Shutterstock

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, USA -

But by the 1950s, the hospital housed 2,400 patients, almost 10 times its capacity.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, USA -

Sitting on more than 600 acres, the facility is comprised of different buildings, including a museum, a gift shop, and a cemetery.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, USA -

It is the second largest hand-cut sandstone building in the world, only behind the Moscow Kremlin.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, USA -

Because of the overcrowding and understaffing, violence among patients was a common occurrence. 

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, USA -

There are cases, both reported and unreported, of patients killing one another.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, USA -

One notorious case contends that there were two patients who hanged another patient using bed sheets. When he didn't die, they used a metal bed frame to finish him off.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, USA -

Another infamous case is of a nurse who went missing only to be found dead two months later at the bottom of an unused staircase.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, USA -

The hospital closed its doors in 1994.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, USA -

Today, it's largely closed to the general public, but paranormal tours and investigations still take place.

(Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

© Flickr/Creative Commons