I got to choose the first location in the town, my friend chose the second. Already the previous summer they had sent me videos, in which they crashed an abandoned mental asylum in the middle of the night and found the old morgue. Since then they had been talking about taking me there.
The complex comprised of two wings linked by a lower one storey wing, which is visible right up front. It’s the one with the boarded windows. Pay close attention to it, as it will be important later on in the story.
The second wing of the complex. My friends were inexperienced explorers eager to rush straight in, but I wanted to do a walkaround first to look for easy entrances and escape routes. This was especially important, as my friends told me, that a nursing home for the mentally ill was located close by and its staff often called the guards on people, who they saw entering the building. Several of them had been fined.
So we started our tour from the back side.
All the ground floor windows had been smashed, but they had also been blocked.
The hospital was founded in 1960. Towards the end of the 1980’s the focus in mental health care started to shift from institutional care towards outpatient care, and mental asylums started to be converted into other uses. Tuukkala hospital became a health care centre with wards, but this, too was closed in 2005.
The hospital served as a backup space for health care and was partially rented out until 2010, when it was abandoned. Since then it has slowly fallen to its current shape.
This is the backside of the low wing. The hospital was built on a hillside, so a part of the lower floors was under and another part above ground level.
This photo has been taken directly from the opposite side of the low wing in the first photo. On the back side it has two floors. There was no point of access here, either.
We’ve now reached the backside of the second wing. Pictured here are the two friends I was exploring with.
There was glass everywhere. The shopping cart looks like it really doesn’t belong here.
A lot of stuff had also been thrown out of the building. Here’s another classic office building clock.
A classic, wooden, uncomfortable chair. I haven’t seen this design before.
We’ve now gone around the back.
Have I now managed to photograph it from all angles?
Another look at the other wing. By now we had determined, that there was just one route to enter and exit the hospital. It was just to the left of this picture and was extremely difficult. You had to climb on top of a small concrete wall next to a basement door, grab hold of a balcony handrail and pull yourself up to the balcony. I was just tall and strong enough for that, my friends had to be helped.
This was a slight red flag. I usually never enter locations, where I can’t get out easily. But I was with two friends, so I figured I was safe.
In the next post we’ll enter the asylum.