lot's of photos

Lately I was out taking a lot of pictures.. so no time for drawing, it's a pitty that the day has only 24 hours and the week only 7 days.. it's never enough ^_^

The latest photos are from the former sanatorium in Beelitz-Heilstätten. It was a booked photo tour, but we could wander around by ourself. Normally the area is closed off to public. It's quite impressive to visit these buildings and imagine how beautiful they must have been...

Here are some facts of the complex for those who are interested.
It is a historic district with about sixty buildings. They were built between 1898 and 1930. They built the hospital complex to heal tuberculosis among other things. It was a very modern hospital complex with a power station nearby that supplyed tha buildings with steam and heat. The rooms were heated and also freshly aired. Not with just opening a window, oh no, that would have been bad for patients with a bad lung. They had air shafts to the patient rooms, pumping fresh forest air inside. Also the pathways between the buildings were directly over the tubes that carried steam from the power station to each building. This kept the pathway free of snow in winter.

The buildings are connected by tunnels. It was spooky, damp and cool in the tunnels, but very interesting

The architecture of the buildings is Victorian with those lovely chimneys. These beautiful buildings don't remind of a hospital or sanatorium. They wanted to get the patient the feeling that they can't be sick in such a nice environment. When patients looked out the window they only saw the green of the forest. And you know what? It worked. A lot of people were healed there.

They have used very expensive materials, the cream of the crop. The plain tiles for the washing house for example are from Villeroy & Boch. I don't want to think about how much it must cost to tile a whole room nowadays. And the washing house was big, I mean really big.

During WWI and II the buildings were used as a military hospital and sanatorium. After WWII the buildings were partly damaged and taken over by the russians. Beelitz-Heilstätten was the biggest military hospital for the red army outside of the Soviet Union till 1994. Unfortunately renovating or maintaining the complex was not one of the things they did...

After this time the buildings were mostly left alone, some were renovated. Though most of them are still abandoned. A few years ago someone bought the complex and closed it off to public. Decay and vandalism have taken its toll on the buildings. Who knows how long someone can get into them... the roof is coming down and the rain gets inside, trees are growing out of the wall...


Tomorrow is the next tour to Beelitz. Last time I was at the sanatorium for women, tomorrow I visit the sanatorium for men. I'm still quite impressed by my last visit and already excited for the next one