Sanatorio de La Barranca
THE ABANDONED HOSPITAL IN SPAIN
‘Sanatorio de La Barranca’ is an abandoned sanatorium in Navacerrada, Spain. After more than 50 years, the hospital is abandoned and left to nature and looters.
Around 1940 the Spanish Ministry of Health built several sanatoriums around Madrid. In particular, they were built on isolated places in the woods to cure tuberculosis, leprosy, polio, fibrosis, and lung cancer. Until the discovery of penicillin, fresh air and sunlight was the best treatment.
The health building was also named ‘Sanatorio del Santo Ángel’. It was built following the standard hospital architecture of the time. Specifically, it was arranged in two large main wings with some outbuildings and a big basement.
Most sanatoriums in the region are demolished, but ‘Sanatorium de la Barranca’ was converted to a psychiatric hospital in 1962. Eventually, in 1995 the hospital was closed and left abandoned. The derelict sanatorium is situated on a hill in a big nature park. Sadly, the beauty of the surroundings are the only thing left. To put it differently, the sanatorium is trashed, partly burned and most of the inside is torn down or full of graffiti. I visited ‘Sanatorio de La Barranca’ in 2012.
