Sanatorium D'Aincourt aka Sanatorium De Vexin aka Fleurs De Ruine: France May 2014

Sanatorium D'Aincourt is set in the Natural Park Of French Vexin.

Visited with Behind Closed Doors and Proj3ct M4yh3m on a hot sunny day it was a rather relaxed afternoon of photography.

Various designs were submitted and the eventual decision was to go with the design by the architects Edward Crevel and Paul-Jean Decaux. Building work started in 1931 by the Lauret Paris construction company and finished in 1933. With each building standing at 220 metres in length and 12 metres wide it was one of the largest sanatoriums built in the 20th century.

The sanatorium consisted of three large identical pavilions set 400 metres apart on the hillside to reduce the risk of infection.

Due to conflict in 1940 patients were evacuated to various treatment centres. Later in the year military authorities commandeered the sanatorium and it became a prison camp. In May 1941 667 inmates were held captive and around 1500 inmates passed through here during the war. Hundreds of inmates were deported to various concentration camps including Auschwitz, sadly only a handful returned.

Eventually after the war in 1946 the sanatorium reopened, due to medical science and advancement in technology the need for sanatoriums dwindled and in 1972 the hospital became more diverse caring for a number of different illnesses.

In 1988 and 2001 two separate pavilions closed only leaving one which still operates till this day.

On the very last image you will find a piece of work by the graffiti artist ROA. I have been following his work for some time now and it was a pleasure to finally see a piece in the flesh.