Sanatorio Duran

Duran Sanatorium

The location:
The Duran Sanatorium is located in Cartago, between Tierra Blanca and Potrero Cerrado of Oreamuno. This building is 7 km north from Cartago city and 18 km southeast from Irazú Volcano.
Architecture:
Made of wood and adobes, it composed by rooms and rows of care bedrooms, long corridor, bathrooms, toilet, rooms, laboratories, a shrine, grounds and it had agrocery store in which people could purchase commodities and imported goods, even on request.
The chapel is made in wood and bahareque technique.
History:
The Duran Sanatorium also is known as Carlos Duran Sanatorium. It was a hospital with capacity for 300 patients,
It was founded in 1915 by the Costa Rican doctor and politician Carlos Duran Cartín (1852-1924)
The good treatment of thetuberculosis was nearly null in the beginning of XX Century in Costa Rica and in Central America, because the people did not have good installations, equipment and people to attend patients in this condition.
Dr Durán showed interest in the creation of any sanatorium motivated by the fact that his daughter had Tuberculosis. For this reason, the Dr. Durán traveled to other countries and he wasinvestigated about the last medical advances and looked for a recovery center to admit his daughter
Duran was president for one year (1889-1890), and he also founded the Chapuí Institution in 1898 (Today Manuel Antonio Chapuí Psychiatric Hospital). This place was created for people with mental problems, and for this reason he had a lot of political influences for created his project (Duran Sanatorium)
TheDuran Sanatorium was created in 1915 and due to its distance and isolation, it was a perfect place to treat people with Tuberculosis, also they had 300 beds in the center; the wind, air humidity, the temperature, the sun hours, and the availability drinking water, they were good elements to treat patients with tuberculosis.
The construction materials chosen carefully. The people used humidityresistant Costa Rican woods for example: Spanish cedar (Cedrela Odorata) and Spiny Cedar (Pachira Quinata).
Because of distance from Cartago, the Duran Sanatorium was a perfect place to attended people with tuberculosis, a highly contagious disease.
The medical center was attended by Hermanas de la Claridad of Santa Ana. They recorded the medical history of each patient with weekly notes of theirweight, the state of lungs and other organs that affected. The TB treatment consisted in rest, a lot of exposure to fresh air and sunshine and a balanced diet.
After in 1963 the Duran Sanatorium closed because the epidemic decreased and the sick people could be attended in other hospitals.
Later, between 1970 and 1980 the government used the Duran Sanatorium as a juvenile prison but thestructure suffered a lot of damages (principally in the ceiling) after the Irazú Volcano eruptions between 1963 and 1965. The center closed for disrepair in 1973
At present this building has a lot of damage in the structure as a consequence of vandalism.

Purpose of the Place:
This place currently is administrating by UPA Nacional (National Union of Small and Medium Costa Rican AgriculturalProducers). In these areas Agricultural studies are carried-out and they rent a building for seminaries or meetings for up to 125 people, they have bedrooms, bathrooms and other rooms.
Because of its historical and architectonical interest, the Duran Sanatorium is a tourist attraction, despite its abandonment and destructive state. For these reasons Potrero Cerrado people request at the government in 2010the declaration of National Patrimony for Duran Sanatorium, but this negotiation is not accepted yet.
The Duran Sanatorium does not have specialized services for the tourist activity, it is much visited place but it is visited because the people listen a lot of legends of this place.

Importance of Duran Sanatorium:
It was very important for people in de 80´s because Tuberculosis was...