Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital · The Iron Gate That Will Not Stay Shut

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital stands on a hillside in Gyeonggi. It was built, used briefly, and closed. From the 1990s it stood empty with the furniture still inside — beds, files, wheelchairs, left where they were.

Three versions of its history circulate: that the building was used to hold people for the intelligence service, that more than thirty patients died there before it closed, and that the director hanged himself on the grounds. None of the three has ever been established.

The gate is chained, and the recurring report from visitors is that they find it standing open. Inside, the detail most people mention is the sound of a door closing somewhere along the corridor — in a building where every door is already shut.

Bureau note: the most visited abandoned building in the country. Nothing has ever been cleaned out.

Haunted Ruins / Gyeonggi · South Korea / 1979