On the outskirts of a regional centre was an old municipal home. In the 1930’s an annex was built to the old wooden houses, and in the 1960’s another building was added to make the area a regional hospital. Decades went, no major renovations were made and the city decided to concentrate health care to the central hospital.
Mäntylä hospital was abandoned in 2010 and the property was bought by a local company running a limestone mine and cement factory in 2012. For years they tried to get a demolition permit for the 1930’s and 1960’s hospital buildings, but things really didn’t progress. The buildings just sat idle with vandals destroying more and more of them.
I was heading home after a long weekend of touring and exploring, when I suddenly remembered the existense of this place. I decided to take a detour to see, if they were still there and accessible.
That is the newest building in the area. Built in 1962 it served as the main building of the complex.
Right next to it was the 1930’s building. As you can see, everything has been fenced off by the cement company trying to prevent unauthorized access.
It was a bit difficult to get close enough to get good shots. The cement factory can be seen in the background.
One end of the 1930’s building. The architecture was rather nice, and I felt really sorry for the current shape of the buildings.
I started a walkaround to find weak spots in the fencing. It turned out that the property was sealed off quite well. A local entrepreneur owned some of the older buildings in the area, and the rumour had it, that he was very hostile towards visitors. There was a car on the driveway, so I had to avoid that side of the area.
The fence was close to the main building, so I was able to take a closer look. There seemed to be no way in and the sign in the fence warned about camera surveillance. I didn’t believe in it, though.
Another look at the main building. The main entrance is to the left.
I was already resigned to not finding an entrance. I photographed the windows to get an impression on how the building looked inside.
Well it pretty much looked like a hospital building. And a very vandalized one.
I walked around the main building, but found new fences, some of which had originally been a part of the building.
A view of the 1930’s building in the area. Whoever had built the fences had done a very good job, so I backtracked a little, as I had found the only weak spot in the fence.
Which was this one. I went down, crawled under the fence, and gained access to the whole place.