Manicomio di C, Italy

Manicomio di C is a ruinous, abandoned psychiatric hospital in Italy. We visited this location during the Italy Road Trip 2018.

The beautiful entrance hall features a stained glass door. The soft afternoon light made the window glow, warmly. The corridors in this area had many wheelchairs, haphazardly scattered around. Paint peels and flakes from the walls and crunches underfoot on the floor. Papers and records litter the floor. There is a small treatment room, with green walls and a strange medical device on a table.

History of Manicomio di C

Founded in the 1870s, the psychiatric hospital evolved over the years. The charges reflecting changes in operation models and treatment plans. During the first 70 years, the asylum followed the practices typical of French institutions. Firstly, patient segregation was by gender. Segregation was also based on the nature of the mental health diagnosis. Violent patients were also separated from those with more docile maladies.

The the years following the Second World War, Manicomio di C embraced new technologies. Additionally, this modernisation brought better treatment options for existing patients.

Protests, occupation and closure

During the 1960s, attitudes began to change. As a result, the hospital became a focus of reformation campaigners. Manicomio di C was seen as a relic. Deemed responsible for widening class divides and strengthening social differences. It became seen as a place where the disadvantaged and poor were locked away, to be neglected or even abused.

To champion the rights of patients at the hospital, several movements were set up. In the late 1960s, one of these groups decided to take action. They occupied the hospital for over one month. They fended off several attempts to remove them, standing strong in their support of the patients rights.

Manicomio di C finally closed its doors in the late 1970s. It now lays in ruins, a painful reminder of the past for many locals.