lunatic asylum 
noun dated
A psychiatric hospital.Until the 1970s some governments consigned those people who came under their control to ‘quiet and chronic’ wards in lunatic asylums or hospitals for the insane, and forgot them....
- It opened as the County Lunatic Asylum in 1774, one of the first purpose-built lunatic asylums in the country.
- Well-to-do Victorians used to pay to tour lunatic asylums, deriving great amusement from the inmates.