Did I already mention, that former mental asylums were a thing that summer. I didn’t? Well, former mental asylums were a thing that summer.
Here we have one beautiful hospital building again from the 1920’s. But wait a second, doesn’t it look like it’s very much in use?
It does indeed. It currently serves as a daycare centre, the largest in the country.
And here is the former women’s hospital. Built in 1939, it now hosts a hospital museum.
This is the old main building from 1959. After the hospital was closed in 1997, a company was founded to develop the area. This building is in office use and the development has actually been so successful, that all premises of the former hospital are full. They have even built more buildings to the area.
Even the former staff apartments have been renovated and are still in use. So what am I doing here?
I came to have look at this.
This building is a former aparment house of hospital staff. When the hospital was closed, the houses were sold to private investors. This particular one was immediately resold to a Spanish lady, who applied for permission to renovate it in 2003.
No renovations happened, and the owner wasn’t exactly too eager to pay the bills. In 2009 both electricity and heating were turned off because of unpaid bills. The owner then paid the bills. There were still tenants, but in early 2010 the town forbade the use of the building as unsafe. The owner had started the renovations, which had been interrupted, and the fire safety of the building was compromised as a result.
New life moved in – birds. Since 2014 neighbours started complaining about them as a health hazard. It was also feared, that broken glass would fall on kids, who had started to use the yard as a playground.
The windows were shut with plywood around 2017 or 2018. Both the town and the investor, who renovated the house next door, have been trying to buy this one, but the owner asks for too much.
Meanwhile the house stays as it is.