The Gotthard Sanatorium, long abandoned and decaying in the forests of Switzerland, is said to still admit patients who have never checked out. Is it really someone haunting the aged hospital in the mountains?
In the shadow of Switzerland's Gotthard Mountains, with mountains rising above misty, dense pine forests, stands a decaying relic of a nation's darker past. The Gotthard Sanatorium, near the village of Piotta, also called Sanatorio Popolare Cantonale di Piotta, is more than just a catwalk, a place where history, death and whispered legends have merged into one sinister presence.
Today, its broken windows open like sunken eyes and its ivy-covered walls crumble under the weight of decades of silence. But those who dared to walk through the abandoned corridors say the building is not empty at all. Legend has it that there is a mountain of corpses in the basement of the sanatorium, and some of them haunt this place to this day.
A sanatorium built for the suffering
Built in the early 20th century, the sanatorium, originally intended for patients with tuberculosis, a common disease in the Alpine regions due to the damp mountain air and close living conditions, opened in 1905. Its initiator was Fabrizio Maffi, later an Italian senator, who fled to Switzerland. Just a year after opening, the sanatorium went bankrupt for the first time.
The Gotthard Sanatorium, isolated in the hills, made it an ideal place for quarantine, but also an ideal place for history to ferment.
During World War I, the role of the sanatorium expanded. They began to treat wounded and shocked soldiers, men mutilated not only in body, but also broken in spirit. It was here, according to local folklore, that the line between medicine and evil began to blur.
Among the most persistent and disturbing rumors is the story of an unnamed doctor who allegedly performed experimental procedures on both people with tuberculosis and wounded soldiers. Surgeries without anesthesia, grotesque experiments with electricity and cool therapy, and cruel psychological tests were said to have taken place in these gloomy rooms. While no official sources confirm these claims, the sanatorium's architecture itself hints at secrets, a discreetly hidden mortuary, unmarked underground tunnels, and sealed wings where sunlight no longer dares to enter.
Decades of decay and unrest in the Gotthard Sanatorium
The Gotthard Sanatorium was quietly closed in 1961 as state-of-the-art medicine had outgrown its usefulness and the site faced economic difficulties that could not be overcome. For the next 60 years, the facility fell into ruin, succumbing to the encroaching forest and harsh mountain winters. But even in the fall, it never subsided.
Urban explorers and thrill-seekers drawn to the crumbling corridors tell of disembodied voices, the sound of shuffling footsteps in empty rooms, and a lingering, oppressive cool that hangs in the air like fog. Some claim to have seen pale figures watching from broken windows or glimpsed fleeting shadows in the peripheral darkness. The feeling of being followed is almost constant and many people leave with an inexplicable feeling of fear.
One widely repeated account describes a man who tried to drive up the narrow road to the Gotthard Sanatorium, but felt his car begin to reverse itself, as if some hidden force was physically pushing him out of the place. Despite tightening his grip on the steering wheel and applying the brakes, the car continued its snail-paced, deliberate retreat down the road, only stopping when he gave up trying.
The haunted legacy of the mortuary
Perhaps the most notable feature of the sanitarium is the basement, which contains rows of rusty wheelchairs and broken lockers, untouched for decades. Visitors report a sudden drop in temperature upon entering and a distinctive, sour smell of aged antiseptics and decay – even though the building has been abandoned for generations.
Some locals insist that the spirits of those who died in agony within these walls – from soldiers torn apart by war to tuberculosis patients abandoned by hope – remain trapped, their suffering tied to the place of torment. The doctor is also said to have performed demonic experiments on patients, which is said to be associated with the fictional character Dr. Mabuse. Lights flicker in its empty shell, and dull, mournful cries sometimes rise above the wind that flutters through the historic eaves.
A warning carried by the wind
Even today, few residents will approach the sanatorium after murky. Hikers say they hear whispers in the trees and animals are said to be avoiding the path leading to the ruined building. Storms seem to be gathering above the roof with alarming speed, and the once healing alpine air becomes cool and weighty as it approaches the gates.
The Gotthard Sanatorium was sold from the Ticino canton to a Kazakh investor group in 2016 who wanted to turn it into a winter sports training center, although nothing happened.
In 2021, Corriere del Ticino reported a strange ritual filmed in the ruins. The video shows a man claiming to be Swiss, dressed in black with a hood with a skull on it. In one hand he swings a (possibly phony) skull and in the other he holds a notebook with a fire on the front and diminutive candles around it. What is happening in the aged sanatorium today?
The Gotthard Sanatorium remains one of Switzerland's most chillingly forgotten places, a decaying testament to human suffering, medical ambitions and ghosts that refuse to be forgotten. Wandering through its corridors means striving for the past and perhaps encountering what remains in the shadows.
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Popular Cantonal Sanatorium of Piotr – Wikipedia
https://www.satyrography.com/panoramas/sanatorium-gotthard/Sanatorium-Gotthard.html
Piotta TI: An abandoned sanatorium attracts ghost hunters and curious people
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