The article focuses on the history of the asylum of Colorno in the province of Parma - from a material point of view. It describes the place where doctors, nurses and patients had lived or worked since 1873. Bars and buildings in the structure were assembled without a logical order, and deeply conditioned everyone who had been living there for over 100 years. Over the years, many directors leading the structure agreed that such an inhospitable place surely amplified the bad quality of the treatments reserved to patients. However, until the Sixties nobody would have considered closing the asylum, but just tried to make it more comfortable, modern and efficient