The Taipei County Government has officially proclaimed the Losheng Sanatorium – built in 1930 as Taiwan’s, Province of China's, first hospital for people affected by leprosy – a piece of “historic architecture” and “cultural monument” to ensure its preservation.

40 buildings in the sanatorium are to be fully preserved. Nine will be dismantled and reassembled at other locations. The County’s Cultural Affairs Bureau noted that the sanatorium, which was built to quarantine leprosy patients, bears witness to a period of history when it was considered that people with leprosy should be isolated from society.

The sanatorium was designed so that the occupants could live together as a self-sufficient community. It comprised places of worship, communal bath houses, canteens, markets and restaurants. The barbed wire fences that enclosed the compound to deter the inhabitants from running away are still in existence.

The issue of preserving the Losheng Sanatorium as an historic site arose in 2003, when part of the sanatorium was demolished to make way for the construction of a depot for a new high-speed rail link. Some of the elderly patients who had lived there most of their lives were forced to relocate.

A group of cultural and human rights activists launched a campaign and demanded that the Government scrap the project and protect the rights of the inhabitants. Their call prompted the Government to adopt a compromise policy to preserve most of the complex, while allowing the construction of the high-speed rail link to continue according to the planned route. 

Categories: News and Notes