TeeJF
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Hey ho! What is it with us and TB sanatoria? is that how you spell the plural of sanitorium? Dunno... don't care! 
Our first couple of days on our Belgiaum/France/Germany urb-ex road trip had not gone overly well. We turned up at Ostende fresh off the ferry and hot to trot only to find that the first site on our list, the military hospital, had in the space of just 8 months been totally dropped and/or converted to domestic housing and a clinic. Got to hand it to our friendly sprouts, they don't hang about if they have got the bit between their teeth! The next port of call was over in Liege and it was absolutely crawling with secca - we counted 14 Group 4 vans! OK, moving on!
Our next site looked possible - a gate with only a cob of concrete and a bit of wood pushed up against the fence to prevent ingress... half way in and a local in tghe locale hung out of their window and bawled us out... time to move on! We were getting tres hacked off by now so we went to Hassard Cheratte mine and got in, but I'm saving the pix from there for a little while because Tank has just covered it. So... our last visit of the Belgium leg = Preventorium Dolhain.
L'histoire avec l'sprouts...
Just outside the city of Liege on the banks of the River Weser a strange art deco style building sits on top of a ridge overlooking a busy railway. Parked at one end of the building is an old red fire engine. This is the Preventorium Dolhain, a tuberculosis sanatorium for children.
In the early part of the twentieth century TB had become a world wide pandemic. The hospital had 150 beds and such was the grip of the disease that they were full most of the time. But after the Second World War increasing use of recently discovered antibiotics soon made TB a thing of the past and the hospital began to slip into decline. With maintenance costs in excess of five million francs a year it made sound financial sense to close the hospital and it has stood empty ever since until it was bought by an investor in 1991 who had plans to turn it into apartments.
Much of the interesting interior has been stripped - there are huge holes cut out of some of the walls and in places corridors come to a grinding halt where block work has been used to close them off. Of course without the plans very little of this work makes any sense!
The building is full of lovely art deco features with ornamental wrought iron on the staircases and oodles of sweeping curves. Huge semi opaque windows with tinted glass admit light and colour but at the same time afford privacy to those inside. The entire hospital, even the basement, is light and airy and it must have been a very pleasant place to be when it was active.
Sadly there are very few artefacts left for the explorer to see now but only a few years ago it was a completely different story with children's clothing, shoes, and toys littering the ward areas, and medical equipment such as specimen jars and medicine vials littering the clinical areas.
What the future holds for the hospital is unclear but perhaps in view of the current dramatic resurgence of the old disease and it's vicious resistance to modern antibiotics maybe the authorities should be contemplating buying the building back and using it in it's old roll once more. Only time will tell.
Les photos...
It doesn't look too inviting from the front!
It's getting better as you come round to the end of the building.
L'pompe à incendie...
L'pompe à incendie rouge avec une échelle...
Out back!
Even the basement is light and airy.
It would appear that metal theft is not such a big thing over in Belgium.
The whole building is full of lovely art deco curves...
This is the building elevation directly by the fire engine.
Why have a boring square doorway when you can go Norman instead?
Loving the wrought iron decoration on the stairwell handrails - pure art deco!
The entrance lobby staircase...
This place isn't big on original signage any longer but when you do find something it can look quite groovy!
More art deco stair porn...
Un grand fan de la ventilation...
And lets finish with some more gratuitous stair porn!
Th-th-that's all folks! Thanks for looking...
Our first couple of days on our Belgiaum/France/Germany urb-ex road trip had not gone overly well. We turned up at Ostende fresh off the ferry and hot to trot only to find that the first site on our list, the military hospital, had in the space of just 8 months been totally dropped and/or converted to domestic housing and a clinic. Got to hand it to our friendly sprouts, they don't hang about if they have got the bit between their teeth! The next port of call was over in Liege and it was absolutely crawling with secca - we counted 14 Group 4 vans! OK, moving on!
Our next site looked possible - a gate with only a cob of concrete and a bit of wood pushed up against the fence to prevent ingress... half way in and a local in tghe locale hung out of their window and bawled us out... time to move on! We were getting tres hacked off by now so we went to Hassard Cheratte mine and got in, but I'm saving the pix from there for a little while because Tank has just covered it. So... our last visit of the Belgium leg = Preventorium Dolhain.
L'histoire avec l'sprouts...
Just outside the city of Liege on the banks of the River Weser a strange art deco style building sits on top of a ridge overlooking a busy railway. Parked at one end of the building is an old red fire engine. This is the Preventorium Dolhain, a tuberculosis sanatorium for children.
In the early part of the twentieth century TB had become a world wide pandemic. The hospital had 150 beds and such was the grip of the disease that they were full most of the time. But after the Second World War increasing use of recently discovered antibiotics soon made TB a thing of the past and the hospital began to slip into decline. With maintenance costs in excess of five million francs a year it made sound financial sense to close the hospital and it has stood empty ever since until it was bought by an investor in 1991 who had plans to turn it into apartments.
Much of the interesting interior has been stripped - there are huge holes cut out of some of the walls and in places corridors come to a grinding halt where block work has been used to close them off. Of course without the plans very little of this work makes any sense!
The building is full of lovely art deco features with ornamental wrought iron on the staircases and oodles of sweeping curves. Huge semi opaque windows with tinted glass admit light and colour but at the same time afford privacy to those inside. The entire hospital, even the basement, is light and airy and it must have been a very pleasant place to be when it was active.
Sadly there are very few artefacts left for the explorer to see now but only a few years ago it was a completely different story with children's clothing, shoes, and toys littering the ward areas, and medical equipment such as specimen jars and medicine vials littering the clinical areas.
What the future holds for the hospital is unclear but perhaps in view of the current dramatic resurgence of the old disease and it's vicious resistance to modern antibiotics maybe the authorities should be contemplating buying the building back and using it in it's old roll once more. Only time will tell.
Les photos...
It doesn't look too inviting from the front!
It's getting better as you come round to the end of the building.
L'pompe à incendie...
L'pompe à incendie rouge avec une échelle...
Out back!
Even the basement is light and airy.
It would appear that metal theft is not such a big thing over in Belgium.
The whole building is full of lovely art deco curves...
This is the building elevation directly by the fire engine.
Why have a boring square doorway when you can go Norman instead?
Loving the wrought iron decoration on the stairwell handrails - pure art deco!
The entrance lobby staircase...
This place isn't big on original signage any longer but when you do find something it can look quite groovy!
More art deco stair porn...
Un grand fan de la ventilation...
And lets finish with some more gratuitous stair porn!
Th-th-that's all folks! Thanks for looking...
