Sanatório de Paredes de Coura
THE ABANDONED SANATORIUM IN PORTUGAL
The ‘Sanatorium Presidente Carmona’ was better known as ‘Sanatório de Paredes de Coura’. It was a health institute owned by the railroad company. The building was in use from 1934 until it was abandoned in 2002.
This hospital was one of the three Portuguese sanatoria to help the employees of the railroad company affected by tuberculosis. The sanatorium was built high on a mountain and house 40 patients.
The first sanatorium for rail workers was sanatorium ‘Vasconcelos Port’. However, it did not have sufficient capacity. In 1919 the construction of a new sanatorium began here on this site. The site was chosen because of its healthy air, an important condition for the cure of tuberculosis. However, due to financial problems, construction was delayed. In 1929 only the support walls were completed of the main building.
By January 1932, construction work was almost complete. But only the building was built, there were no funds to acquire the necessary equipment. The total cost of the building was about 4 million Escudos.
The sanatorium was opened on September 16, 1934. In December, it already had 20 patients. In 1955, the number of patients in the Sanatorium increased to 70, and by 1962 it had reached 200. The water used in the sanatorium was collected from the mountain that passed through sand filters.
Because of the advances in medicine, tuberculosis patients reduced fast in the 1970s. ‘Paredes de Coura’ was shut down and converted to a psychiatric hospital in the mid-1990s. The psychiatric hospital housed 60 patients. The hospital operated until 2002, since then the building has been abandoned. These photos of ‘Sanatório de Paredes de Coura’ were taken in 2018. More Portuguese sanatoria here, here and here.
