Hospital Colônia de Barbacena was permanently closed after the transfer of 14 remaining patients
The government of Minas Gerais permanently closed the old Hospital Colônia de Barbacena (MG) on Sunday (May 25, 2026). The institution became a symbol of human rights violations committed against psychiatric patients in Brazil throughout the 20th century. The place inspired the book report Brazilian Holocaustby journalist Daniela Arbex, which reconstructs the story of forced hospitalizations, mistreatment and deaths in the largest asylum in the country.
According to Agência Minas, the closure of the space was possible after the transfer of the remaining 14 patients to a new health unit in Barbacena.
The state administration claims that the old hospital had already closed its historical operations years ago, but still had long-stay patients. With the transfer, the government says it has completed the definitive closure of the remaining Colônia structure.
The Hospital Colônia de Barbacena was founded in 1903 and became known for the degrading conditions imposed on its inmates. Daniela Arbex’s book, published in 2013, reports that at least 60,000 people died in the institution. The work is based on documents, photographs, reports from survivors, former employees and people linked to the hospital’s routine.
In the preface to the work, writer and journalist Eliane Brum justifies the use of the word “Holocaust” to describe the episode. According to her, the term often sounds exaggerated when applied to something other than the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis in World War II, but in the case of Cologne, it would be “necessary” use the term given the scale of deaths and institutional violence.
“When they arrived at Colônia, their heads were shaved and their clothes were torn off. They lost their name, they were renamed by the employees” says Brum.
Over the decades, the hospital has received people with mental disorders, but also individuals hospitalized for social, family or political reasons. According to the book, women who were considered unwanted, people in poverty, drug addicts, homosexuals and people without a psychiatric diagnosis were hospitalized. The case became one of the main references in the anti-asylum struggle in Brazil.
The definitive closure takes place in the context of progressive replacement of the asylum model with community-based mental health services. In Barbacena, part of the memory of the old hospital is preserved by the Museum of Madness, installed in the complex where the Colônia operated.
