# Heilstätte Grabowsee, near Berlin, July 2011



## RedDave (Aug 3, 2011)

Most urban explorers, when visiting Berlin, make a beeline for Beelitz-Heilstätten, a large sanatorium complex south-west of Berlin. But you've all seen photographs of that, so I decided to explore Heilstätte Grabowsee instead. It's a former sanatorium (i.e. a hospital for tuberculosis patients) several kilometres from Oranienburg. After the war, the Russians moved in and it became a military hospital. They left in 1995 and it's been slowly decaying ever since.

Recently, it's been the venue for Artbase Grabowsee, which has resulted the walls painted with artwork.

While there, I was initially unaware of this and spent the first hour or so playing cat and mouse with the artists. Only when I arrived in the hall with the grand piano and saw two young women taking photographs did I introduce myself. I'm used to having places all to myself, but after that, I was a bit more comfortable with the others around the site.



























For some reason, the grand piano was covered in Post-It notes:













































The building with the grand piano:










2 Views from the tower:










Inside the top of the tower. To get different views you have to go around the narrow ledge next to the windows, hanging on like grim death:





Some of the recent artwork:


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## The Archivist (Aug 3, 2011)

What a remarkable water-tower. I've seen plenty of water tower and chimney combinations, but never a chimney on top of a water tower. Any idea why it was so tall? 

My only guess is that it could have been to take the boiler smoke further away from the hospital buildings, fresh air having been important in the treatment of patients with TB, but it still seems pretty odd.


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## TeeJF (Aug 3, 2011)

Another absolute gem Dave! Thanks for posting.


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## LulaTaHula (Aug 3, 2011)

That water tower is AMAZING!


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## Foxylady (Aug 7, 2011)

Fabulous site and images. Cheers, Dave.


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## RedDave (Aug 7, 2011)

The Archivist said:


> What a remarkable water-tower. I've seen plenty of water tower and chimney combinations, but never a chimney on top of a water tower. Any idea why it was so tall?
> 
> My only guess is that it could have been to take the boiler smoke further away from the hospital buildings, fresh air having been important in the treatment of patients with TB, but it still seems pretty odd.



That explanation makes sense. If patients have TB, you don't want them to breathe any smoke, so make the chimney as tall as possible, and combine it with the water tower into a single structure.


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## King Al (Aug 7, 2011)

That is one hell of a water tower there Dave!! Great report as usual


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## Janey68 (Aug 8, 2011)

Lovely buildings. The tiles in the entrance part are strange but colourful. Gorgeous looking place tho, loved the pictures


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