This mental hospital was built in 1956 as an expansion to former municipal home according to plan established by Finnish architect Jalmari Lankinen. The hospital was aimed for tranquil patients, who could have been controlled easily by medication. There were 133 beds in this hospital, so it was a medium-sized facility in Finnish terms.
The institution was closed as a hospital in 2006, but after being vacant for many years it is nowadays still in use. The photographs in this gallery were taken in July 2015.
First look of the area.Map of the hospital buildings.There was this kiosk hiding in the bushes, perhaps for use by the patients.Presumably the canteen was located in this wing.Moving closer to the facility…Presumably windows of patient rooms.Presumably windows to other premises, for example day rooms.BalconiesThe same balconies from a different angle.Peek inside through a window glass.Door to refrigerated room, also shot through a window.An old-style door……and a peek inside through a glass pane. White and slight blue on the walls, perhaps they are the traditional Finnish colours for a mental hospital.This notice tells that the door is kept locked between the mentioned times.View of the hospital from backyard.This rusted shader above a back door was so photogenic…A closer look.Different angle from the backyard.Tower of windowsMore balconies, this time on the backside of the building. The heap on the ground contained decoration tiles.Trash bins for glass, there were a lot of oldish pill containers inside. I was interested in things like this, because at this moment I wasn’t sure if it was possible to go inside the hospital building.Ventilation grilles on the roof.A small balcony, located surprisingly high on the wall.An old-style clock, in places like this you cannot be sure what time it indicates. 🙂Then I went in (using only an open door) and stumbled upon this large room on the uppermost floor. Presumably this was used for meetings.A fireplace, that appears to have been used deducing from the soot.A fuse panel was still on…An old-style light switch.WC……water was still running. And electricity also, but it doesn’t show up in this picture, because this was shot using a camera flash.Light and heatStairs to lower floors……and back up.Doors to two rooms, which were presumably in office use.A washing sink. The black box on the farthest table was a bait used for rat poisoning.“Alternatives to refreshment”Office roomDia frames on a windowsill.The nature seen from the windows was lush during summer.Corridor, but it was not lined by patient rooms……but these, office-looking spaces. It is also possible that psychologist was in some of these rooms.View outside from a small window.Workshop of a kind.This was presumably a day room for patients.There were some beds around.An old-style hospital bed, from before the era of electrical adjusting.Another kind of bed.The wheels on the sides (the left-hand side one is missing) are used to prevent the steel lining from crashing with walls when the bed is moved around.WheelchairA very old-style bed, perhaps it was the original type used in this hospital.Based on the plaque, the room behind this door was used to bright light treatment and conversation.The room behind the door. The electricity was still running also in here.This door would have led to a room where handicrafts made by the patients were sold, but it was locked.Moving to ground-level floor…More office space…SocketsBrightly colored lockers and a place from where a washing sink was removed.A lab of some kind (?).This presumably was a little autoclave.InsidePerhaps patient art?These keys were to wardrobes in staff’s social premises. Blah.A small part of checkered floor and an elevator in an intermediate room……where was a locked door to ward.A large room for patients to make handicrafts.Russian proverb: “hurry is okay only when you are trying to catch a fly”.Presumably materials for making handicrafts.A very common kind of clock used in Finland, this kind of clocks are found, for example, in many schools.A locked door to ward 4. I tried to shoot a scary picture, but it is not really possible in a Finnish mental hospital.The door on the left would have led to same kind of museum, but it was locked, sadly.Behind this door was the leading psychologist’s office, when this hospital was still in use.The ‘traditional’ colour theme seen in a staircase.Another locked door.A peek through the window in the door of previous photo.A little peek to a smoking room.SwatterEmpty room.The patient library……and another part of it.A very narrow corridor.A phone booth, a thing that nowadays is history, at least in Finland.A industrial-grade washing machine……there was also a smaller one next to it.An apparatus used for drying clothes.Then I moved on to the kitchen. This is a cart for delivering food to the patients.OwenLastly, I took some exterior photos of the parts that I didn’t shoot earlier.This is probably the old municipal home, to which the ‘new’ hospital was constructed as an expansion in 1956.
