Insane Asylums

An old asylum graveyard that's been abandoned for half a century attracts those seeking a dark thrill.

This small museum displays a collection of outsider art and scale models of past "treatments" for mental illness.

Once known as the Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane.

Unlike other abandoned asylums this empty institution welcomes visitors, just don't go in the buildings.

Run by a eugenics advocate, this aging institution conducted secret radiation experiments sponsored by Quaker Oats.

The inspiration for H.P. Lovecraft's horror stories and Batman's Arkham Asylum is now a condominium complex.

This decrepit abandoned building is made all the more eerie by its dark history.

A haunted hot springs hotel that went from healing retreat to asylum before it was restored.

The mental institution where Van Gogh created some of his most famous work now allows guests to walk in the artist's footsteps.

A historic chapel filled with colorful murals and a colorful past.

Now abandoned, this East Austin school for the disabled began as the "State Colony for the Feeble-minded."

An institution that preserves the history of institutionalization.

A former insane asylum despised by Nelly Bly and Charles Dickens is now fashionable apartments.

This hospital once pioneered the use of electroencephalograms, but fell into maltreatment, abuse, and eventual abandonment.

Venice's "Island of the Mad."

A formerly abandoned mental institute, now back in business.

Beneath the mossy overgrowth covering this once-sprawling campus lies decades of history and the secrets that come with it.