Participants dressed as Santa Claus gather shortly before the 4th annual Michendorf Santa Run (Michendorfer Nikolauslauf) on December 9, 2012 in Michendorf, Germany. Over 800 people took part in this year's races that included children's and adults' races. (Photo by Sean Gallup)

Chrisitan pilgrims carry wooden crosses along the Via Dolorosa during the Good Friday procession on April 22, 2011 in Jerusalem, Israel. Thousands of Christians around the world will today mark Good Fiday when they commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In Jerusalem Christian pilgrims took part in processions along the route that Jesus is believed to have taken in his last days as he carried the cross. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

A Chinese girl touches the gun of a relievo featuring Chinese soldiers fighting with Japanese troops during World War II at an exhibition at the Anti-Japan War Museum to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japan on August 18, 2005 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Cancan Chu/Getty Images)

Indian wrestlers Rashid Anwar (left) and Ajaib Singh in a training bout at Lane's Club in Baker Street London before the Empire Games, 19th July 1934. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

(L-R) Mollie King and Frankie Sandford of The Saturdays performs for a dress rehearsal before the first night of their “All Fired Up!” tour at The Bournemouth International Centre on December 1, 2011 in Bournemouth, United Kingdom. (Photo by Dave J. Hogan/Getty Images)

Blood drips down from the face of a Shi'ite Muslim boy after practicing a self-flagellation ritual during a religious procession of the Ashura mourning period on December 6, 2011 in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

Ice sculptures based on the caracters by Walt Disney are shown at the snow and ice sculpture festival on December 15, 2011 in Brugge, Belgium. (Photo by Mark Renders/Getty Images)

These images of abandoned hospitals across Italy are not for the faint-hearted. Both of the hospitals featured in the photographs are Italian asylums – known as manicomios – that were used as mental hospitals. Shut down by law in 1978, the derelict buildings are visibly overgrown and make for very eerie portraits. Photographer Thomas Windisch, 32, of Graz, Austria, said the asylums, located in top-secret spots, can get very creepy when there aren't many people there with him. Here: a hallway within an abandoned hospital. (Photo by Thomas Windisch/Caters News)