Inside chilling abandoned psychiatric asylum frozen in time for more than four decades

The Volterra Psychiatric Hospital was known to perform electro-shock and ice water therapy on patients, along with medical experiments, before its closure 44 years ago

A UK urban explorer managed to sneak inside a gruesome abandoned psychiatric hospital which used such barbaric treatments that it inspired a PlayStation horror game.

Shuttered for more than 40 years, the Italian Volterra Psychiatric Hospital is almost frozen, giving a terrible sense of what it was like to be locked-up there.

Electro-shock and ice water therapy were commonplace in the brutal institution, with inmates at times subject to medical experiments after it opened in 1888.

British photographer Ben James, a huge fan of the game The Town Of Light that was partly based on the chilling tales from the institution, avoided suspicion to make his way into the place that was once home to 6,000 patients.

Mr James’ snaps show that some of the medical facilities at the asylum— known also by its Italian name, Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra — remain untouched since the doors were locked.

The explorer said he felt some “bad energy” when making his way through the property, putting it down to the awful treatment of those kept inside its walls.

One room he photographed consists of a stretcher-like bed and, above it, chains hang from rusty pipes.

The mortuary slab stands where it would have when the hospital was overcrowded, left like it is awaiting the next dead body.

Having been left derelict since being forced to close in 1978 by decree of Italian mental health laws shutting such hospitals, the walls have crumbled, while the floors are strewn with decaying book pages.

Another spooky shot shows a rusted wheelchair outside, with its wheels engulfed by wild foliage.

Toys, luggage and shoes are just a few belongings left behind by previous inhabitants of the Tuscan hospital, situated about 50 miles south-west of Florence.

Mr James, who runs the Instagram account, Places_forgotten, was prompted to search out the asylum after playing The Town of Light, a game released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox one in 2017.

The game focuses on a teenager who suffers from symptoms of mental illness and goes back to explore the place where she spent most of her youth.

“I played The Town of Light a couple of years ago and that’s what made me want to go and see it,” he said.

“I do a lot of photography of old and abandoned places.

“And because of the law that came in Italy to close all the asylums, these are just sat there and it’s quite fascinating — it’s like stepping back in time.

“The place is eerily sinister but in a beautiful way.

“You walk through the corridors and you can hear the birds singing but there’s definitely some bad energy in that place going from the horrible events that took place.”

The Town of Light is a psychological horror adventure game inspired by real events.

Players navigate the Volterra Psychiatric Hospital as 16-year-old Renee, an inmate at the asylum.

Locals would refer to the asylum as “the place of no return”, with those diagnosed as insane unable to leave.

One image reveals certificates from the 1960s containing the doctor’s diagnosis, certifying a patient as mad.

“It’s been closed a long time so there’s a lot of things left,” said the urban explorer.

“In one of the pictures, you can see the patient certificates to condemn them insane.

“They call it diagnosis, and you can see all those on the window sill that left the dates on that were from the 60s, and you think what happened to those patients? Where are they now? Are they dead?

“It’s amazing because you’ve still got the medical equipment left, the kids’ toys, the patient records, the mortuary.

“For a place that was so busy, I think it had about four hundred patients to each nurse, it’s just eerie, truly it’s like something out of a horror game.”