Previously on Broken Window Theory:
While exploring abandoned Italy for ten days in summer 2018,
we arrived at a derelict villa we wanted to see for quite some time.
Finally, we made it to the castle of the artist.
Its last resident didn’t only leave impressive images and sculptures behind,
but also beautiful vintage furniture and personal items of all kinds.
Never before were we able to find an overwhelming time capsule like this.
But before we finish our Italy adventure for good, we want to explore some more real urbex highlights which are featured in this episode.
Stay tuned for a wild ride!
Our Italy road trip is nearly over.
It’s already evening and at the moment we’re somewhere in the mountains.
As you can see, we’re just helping ourselves out with this great looking firewood.
We want to be prepared for tonight because we’re going to camp at one of the most badass spots you can think of.
But there’s a problem…
At this point we were heading to the top of the mountain where our target was located.
But since the road hasn't been maintained in decades there were potholes and I mean massive potholes everywhere.
Due to something like that we already broke a vehicle axle on one of our recent trips.
So we just wanted to make sure that something like that never happens again.
So we kind of accepted that we need to walk up there the whole way.
Which was a few kilometres with a lot of luggage.
And our American friends from the Proper People they were already up there.
But neither they nor we had any cell reception so we couldn't communicate with each other.
And then suddenly something really unlikely happened.
We were basically in the middle of nowhere and we were overtaken by a car.
Obviously the driver had the same destination as us because there was nothing else up there.
So we decided to stop the car and just ask if he could give us a lift.
And that's what he did.
We were capturing this on our Instagram story back then.
In this car there was just enough space for Marco Tobi me and our camera and camping gear.
However, this whole situation seemed totally unreal, so we couldn't believe it was really happening.
But here we were on the summit where the Proper People were already waiting.
We just wanted to share this with you because we think that something like this
was really unlikely to happen and for us it made the whole thing a lot more special.
But now let's get back to the actual exploration.
Just in time for sunset we’re reaching this cluster of defunct radar dishes.
They’re part of a former NATO communications facility.
Isolated and exposed, the forgotten military compound is located on a 1.500 meters peak.
Unfortunately, we’re dealing with massive drone issues during the second half of our Italy adventure.
Since the gimbal isn’t working most of the time, we leave it for now.
This evening there’s quite an amount of people up here.
Our driver is part of a photographer’s group that wants to take bulb exposures during nightfall.
Also, we are on the hunt for cool pictures taken from unusual angles.
For more images like those take a look on the Instagram account of tobi_urbex.
The link to that can be found in the video description.
By now it became really dark.
Unfortunately, we had to leave nearly all of the firewood with our car.
But we’re still able to make barbecue.
Since we have more camera gear than actual camping cutlery with us,
we always have to improvise during our outdoor night stops.
But it’s working so far and we’re able to cook ourselves a fancy dinner.
We feel like kings with such an exquisite banquet.
By the way, right next to us there’s a house with working electricity.
We don’t know why, but we guess we will find out tomorrow.
But for now, it’s bedtime.
We have an exhausting day full of urbex behind us and an even more exhausting day with many more explorations ahead of us.
So, let’s hit the sack.
Some obtrusive ringing bells have awakened us.
But due to the extremely heavy fog we can’t say where it’s coming from.
Hell, we can’t even see those larges dishes in front of us!
But we guess those bells have something to do with this massive pile of shit
that was placed right next to our tents last night.
Here they are!
Apparently, horses are grazing on the remote compound by day.
And some of them have those annoying bells hanging round their neck.
The longer we are here, the more bizarre this exploration gets.
Or did you ever experience a horse family living at an abandoned radar station?
We for sure didn’t!
But as much as we’re fascinated by them, they’re also fascinated by us.
So, we guess, they’re accepting us as one of them now.
Four radar dishes in total are located on this big plot of land.
They were part of an enormous early warning system of the NATO.
In ten different EU countries those Troposcatter bases can be found.
Maybe you remember: In our very first Italy episode we also spent the night in one of those facilities.
They all were constructed in the 1960s.
So, at the climax of the Cold War.
In case of an invasion by Soviet Russia, allies of the NATO could have been warned almost immediately.
Over 4.000 kilometer, from Norway to Turkey, were covered by the communications network.
In the 1990s this site was shut down.
On the one hand because the Cold War was over
and on the other hand because satellite communications were displacing microwave radio.
Until this point, 25 people in total were permanently stationed here.
But why did we see light here last night?
Is this place not really abandoned after all?
Well, partly.
In 2005, the military granted civilians access to the property.
An amateur radio club started to partly refurbish the outdated facility
and installed new telecommunications equipment up here.
This also explains the relatively good condition of the structures.
Two of the four paraboloids with 20 meters in diameter are said to be working again.
We think that this is a great opportunity to continue the legacy of this history-charged place.
And what makes it even better in our opinion:
Despite the property still belongs to the military, it is only used for civil purposes.
It’s a museum, a real relic from the climax of the Cold War and from time to time even pasture area.
And all of that with a picturesque backdrop.
We can’t stop raving about this place.
But we have to.
It’s time to strike camp and continue our journey through abandoned Italy.
We say good bye to our new friends while trying to avoid stepping in their droppings.
But it’s everywhere, so good luck with that.
However, we’re now heading from the top of a mountain back to plain land
where the next lost paradise is awaiting us.
We were driving many miles to reach this royal palace somewhere in the North of Italy.
If you see this magnificent building complex with huge park,
you would never guess that this place is abandoned.
Well, because it isn’t.
At least not completely.
Behind the church of the palace a totally forgotten section of the building is stretching,
which has been decaying for more than 20 years now.
But maybe its existence was just denied by the townsfolk.
Because this is another one of those sinister structures with a cruel past.
But places like this have a very special attraction to adventurers like us.
We have barely entered the area that’s off-limits for tourists but already here dense undergrowth is starting.
Actually, this is more like a small jungle hidden in the middle of a city.
In some places you have to look closely to see remains of human civilization.
But in other places they’re more apparent.
We’re kinda lost.
We’re not really sure where to find the way inside.
Is there even a way?
We’re following the trails.
Mostly they’re leading directly inside abandoned places.
Tobi just discovered an open window.
Before we can even think of looking for a more comfortable way in,
we have already vanished in the dark basement.
It’s finally time to start exploring and to tell you something about this old construction’s history.
This already really trashed place is another one of those Italian asylums.
It’s the fourth one we have discovered on our travels and it also will be the last one.
Around the year 1870 it was decided to move the mental hospital to the rooms of the ducal palace and its old monastery.
It’s said that the reason for that was a cholera outbreak.
Although the building complex wasn’t really suited for placing patients, they had to live here now.
And at first this wasn’t really a problem.
Because this was supposed to be just a temporary solution.
And hey, after all it’s a palace!
But during the course of time the situation didn’t change
and so the former palace didn’t only become a madhouse but also a prison.
If you’re an avid viewer of our videos, you already know about the horrendous conditions in those mental institutions.
But here’s the short version:
All the facilities were crowded with patients.
People were captivated, imprisoned, monitored and tortured.
Nurses weren’t hired because of their professional abilities at all but because of their physical strength.
Since there were way too few employees, nurses had to work in exhausting shifts.
Many patients arrived at the asylum as kids and they spent their whole lives in here.
Other patients might have been roamers or prostitutes.
So, especially people who didn’t really have a psychiatric disorder
but who wouldn’t fit to the ideal image of the Italian society.
After they were interned, nobody had ever seen them again.
Now we have reached the pompous entrance hall.
It’s especially impressive and simply beautiful in so many ways.
It’s this splendid, palatial architecture why we came here in the first place.
But we stayed for another reason.
This place became the gallery of an internationally known street artist.
The ongoing project “1000 Shadows” by the Brazilian Herbert Baglione
represents the long story of pain and suffering which souls from the past had to go through.
The painted silhouettes emerged at walls in cities all over the world.
As it did here.
Well-fitting to the sinister history of this facility.
For us as huge street art enthusiasts a real highlight.
Although this hospital has a shocking past, it’s also the place where a revolution was started which changed Italy for ever.
But for that we have to go back to the 60s of the recent century.
The terrible state of the insane asylums was denounced more and more.
Hospital personnel, students, teachers and many more people were fighting to bring the horrors of the asylums to the public.
In 1969 this place had been at the center of the debates when students were occupying this clinic out of protest for 35 days.that
That period was the first time ever that no patient of the facility was beaten or even killed.
Immediately after that, in 1970, Franco Basaglia was appointed as director of the clinic.
You probably remember that name.
The law which was supposed to reform all the mental hospitals of the country was named after him.
The psychiatrist was responsible for the asylum for one year only,
but during that time he restructured the whole facility completely.
Therapy now focused on the patient and not on his illness.
So, a prison was finally turned into a place of caring.
More and more patients here had been reintegrated in society and they got their lives back.
In 1978, the Basaglia law equaled a real cultural and medical revolution.
All over Italy mental institutions were now urged to gear themselves to Basaglia and this place right here
when it came to treatment.
Bad pharmacological therapy and electroshocks were finally abolished for good.
Since more and more patients could leave the hospital, this place was closed down in the 90s.
There was simply no demand anymore.
Today this former place of terror resembles a garbage dump.
The building is in terrible shape.
The structure is falling apart bit by bit and in some places it only holds together
because of new support beams.
However, it nearly seems like the public isn't really interested in this place anymore.
Even though the old clinic hasn't only an enormous historical value but also an artistic one.
At the moment it's the home of stray cats.
And from time to time it's a museum visited only by daredevils.
But if it were possible to open this site to the public, and not only the main palace next door,
this might become a real magnet for tourists.
Think about it:
A forgotten wing of a massive palace that was just rediscovered after more than 20 years,
with many items from a dark past and an extensive gallery of a well-known artist...
People would pay a lot of money to see something like this.
And we were even able to see it free of charge.
Next time on Broken Window Theory:
At the end of an exhausting road trip we reach our last abandonment:
An old restaurant of a very different kind.
We always wanted to see derelict planes from the inside.
But we didn’t expect that!
While we didn’t have any struggles with the law during our whole adventure,
we triggered an alarm here first and got questioned by the police after.
Stay tuned if you want to know what happened.
Thanks for watching!
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