Mortuarium Schoonselhof
THE ABANDONED MORGUE IN BELGIUM
‘Mortuarium Schoonselhof’ is a morgue in Schoonselhof, a domain where the urban cemetery of the Belgian city of Antwerp is located. Eventually the morgue was closed in 1999.
This abandoned and derelict mortuary was used for autopsy on the deceased. In other words, it was the Forensic Institute part of the Schoonselhof Cemetry Antwerpen. Schoonselhof is located in Hoboken, a suburb of Antwerpen, Belgium.
Schoonselhof was set up as a park. A walk here shows a diversity of landscapes, such as a maintained park with flowers and beautiful monuments. Or in contrast a park with crooked and mossy tombstones. But you can also see headstones where designers worked very creatively. There are also war memorials and military graves of Belgian, British and other allied soldiers who died fighting in both First World War and Second World War.
Autopsy instruments
The morgue was abandoned during 1999, they left all tools and chemicals in its place. The freezer room was used to delay decomposition, it had place for 12 corpses. On the stone slabs I found several autopsy instruments, untouched for years. For example, there were some needles and sewing materials, tweezers, scissors and even an electric bone saw. In the window was a chalkboard for recording test data. Also there were many chemicals and spray instruments to exterminate vermin.
When social media found out about this urbex location in 2007, the place was run over by photographers and film makers. Not much later they cleaned the old mortuary. I visited ‘Mortuarium Schoonselhof’ in 2006. More dark tourism locations can be found here.
