Lier Psychiatric Hospital (Lier Psykiatriske Sykehus or Lier Asyl in Norweigan) in Norway, has a long history as an institution. The sickest people in the society was stowed away here and went from being people to be test subjects in the pharmaceutical industry’s search for new and better drugs. The massive buildings house the memory of a grim chapter in Norwegian psychiatric history the authorities would rather forget.
UPDATE: When you have read this post you might be interested in reading my report one year later!
The buildings welcome you
Many of the patients never came out again alive and many died as a result of the reprehensible treatment. It was said that the treatment was carried out voluntarily, but in reality the patients had no self-determination and the opportunity to make their own decisions.
Must be creepy at night
There is little available information about the former activities at Lier Hospital. On this page (In Norwegian) you can read more about the experiments that were carried out on this Norwegian mental hospital in the postwar period from 1945 to 1975. It’s about the use of LSD, electroshock, brain research funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and drug research sponsored by major pharmaceutical companies. It is perhaps not surprising that they try to forget this place and the events taking place here.
Chair in room
One of many rooms
Things that is left behind including bath tub
It was also performed lobotomy here. That’s a procedure that involves knocking a needle-like object into the eye socket and into the patients head to cut the connection between the anterior brain lobes and the rest of the brain. Lobotomy was primarily used to treat schizophrenia but also as a soothing treatment for other disorders. The patients who survived were often quiet, but generally this surgery made the patients worse. Today lobotomy is considered barbaric and it is not practiced in Norway.
From a window
Lier Psyciatric Hospital, or Lier Asylum as it was called originally, was built in 1926 and had room for nearly 700 patients at the most. In 1986, many of the buildings were closed and abandoned and they still stand empty to this day. Some of the buildings are still in operation today for psychiatric patients.
Exterior of the A building
Desinfection bath tub
These photos are from my visit there as a curios photographer. The place was clearly ravaged by the youths, the homeless and drug addicts who have infiltrated the buildings during its 23 years of abandonment. On net forums people has written up and down about ghost stories and the creepy atmosphere. I was curious how I would experience the place myself. But I found it was pretty quiet and peaceful. I went there during the day so I understand that during nighttime, one should look far for a more sinister place. The floor consisted of a lot of broken glass and other debris.
View through window
A pile with electrical boxes or something
These days, there has been provided money to demolish the. 15 million NOKs is the price. Neighbors cheer but the historic, photographers and ghost hunting kids think it’s sad. This is the most visited, and just about the only and largest urban exploration site in Norway.
I have read and recommend Ingvar Ambjørnsen first novel, “23-Salen”, which is about when he worked as a nurse at Lier Psychiatric Hospital for one year. The book provides insight into how life for patients and nurses turned out in one of the worst wards.
The famous motorized wheelchair
Doorways and peeling paint
Top floor, view to the roof and empty windows
Disused stairs outside