Heybeliada Sanitarium



DHA photos via Hurriyetdailynews.com

I love finding off-the-beaten path, interesting buildings, but sanitarium might just say it all for me today. Wish I could tell you what it looked like before... After all, I stayed on neighboring Büyükada for weeks and could have easily visited. But of course, I never made it there and so now all we have is this photo of a burned-out shell.

The Heybeliada Sanitarium was created from an historic building in 1924 as a tuberculosis hospital. Waiting lists were long and health resort-style treatments were largely to comfort patients with the uncureable disease of the era. Who could complain, though? With the lovely sea views and pine forests surrounding on all sides, the hospital was idyllic.

Eventually, the hospital's location on an island became a burden for modern medicine. The property was boarded up and an inadequate fire rescue team couldn't handle the blaze. The entire structure was destroyed.

I filed the story location away in my head for someone to meet an unhappy fate in that abandoned building.

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