The Dreux sanatorium or Bas Buissons sanatorium was a health resort specializing in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis (phthisis) located in Dreux in the French department of Eure-et-Loir.
The sanatorium site, located in the Bois de la Muette, is made up of the sanatorium itself, called “Clinique Laennec” and the preventorium “Thérèse Viollette”.
It was built by architects Georges Beauniée and André Sarrut between 1928 and 1932. It was used extensively in the 1930s, but with the advancement of medicine, it became obsolete in the 1950s and was abandoned in 1990.
Construction and peak (1928-1939)
Under the leadership of Mayor Maurice Viollette, the sanatorium was built between 1928 and 1932 to combat the spread of pulmonary tuberculosis.
In 1935, the convalescent home for women was built. It was during these years that the sanatorium was at its peak, with a capacity of around 1,000 people, although this number was never reached.
The patients, mostly children, could stay there for several years. However, it was primarily a measure of distance. The patients were treated there almost exclusively in a solarium. Designed to be a modern building, it gradually became a "dying house".
During World War II (1939-1945)
In 1940, the building was operating at only a third of its capacity, already foreshadowing the decline of the place.
Between 1942 and 1943, after the enactment of several laws on the status of Jews under the Vichy regime, director Gabriel Roche joined a resistance movement and prevented the deaths of several Jews by making false certificates to keep his patients.
Decline and uselessness of places (1945-1990)
After the war, the sanatorium slowly became useless with the progress of medicine. In 1956, it was gradually decommissioned, but was first used as a retirement home and then as a medical-educational institute from 1962 to 1980. Until the end of the 1980s, it was mainly used to accommodate patients suffering from rare diseases.
Abandonment (1990-2021)
The site was closed in 1990, then bought by the City of Dreux in 1999 for a symbolic franc.
In June 2016, a 19-year-old man fell to his death in one of the tallest buildings of the sanatorium. After a silent march, the city hall announced emergency measures to prevent access to the site. Since 2021, sheet metal walls have surrounded the entire site.
Since then, the first building of the Laennec clinic has been transformed into the Bas Buissons Maternal Center
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