Hospital Colônia de Barbacena

Museu da Loucura (Museum of Madness), formerly known as Hospital Colônia was a psychiatric hospital founded in 1903. The institution was located in the Brazilian city of Barbacena, Minas Gerais. From its foundation to 1980, Colônia was theater of a genocide. Official estimates report over 60,000 deaths occurred inside the wards due to medical malpractice and torture over the years. Italian Psychiatrist Franco Basaglia compared the place to a Nazi concentration camp. In 2013, Brazilian journalist Daniela Arbex released an investigative book called O Holocausto Brasileiro (The Brazilian Holocaust) telling the stories of survivors and victims. The events inside Colônia were also a boost for the national anti-asylum movement.