Since the most frequent cause of death in Czechoslovakia during the 1930s was tuberculosis, the Central Social Insurance Office decided to build a modern sanatorium for respiratory illnesses in the mountain resort of Vyšné Hágy. The actual sanatorium was completed during this decade; the outbreak of World War II stopped plans for a hotel for visiting friends and relations of the patients and a large residential block for sanatorium employees. Currently, the complex is composed of thirteen buildings – the main curative institute, the infectious pavilion, the offices, the central boiler room and generator, workshop, laundry, garage, greenhouse, porter’s lodge and four employee residential blocks. The main building can accommodate 500 patients, including medical and dining spaces, as well as shops, a post office, and a theatre with 600 seats. An important Functionalist work, the complex has well-balanced proportions, though its scale is unusual even today for a mountain village. Structurally, it uses a ferroconcrete skeleton with special brick masonry using cork insulation and covered with ceramic tiles.
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