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.

Literature:
[BLAŠKO, J.]: Ako to bude so sanatoriom Ústrednej sociálnej poisťovne v Tatrách? Slovenský staviteľ 3, 1933, p. 99 – 102.
Dvě soutěže na sanatoria pro TBC v Tatrách. Stavba 11, 1933, 4.
Ing. arch. K. Ž.: Sanatórium pre tuberkulóznych vo Vyšných Hágoch. Slovenský staviteľ 10, 1940, p. 67 – 71.
25 rokov liečebne vo Vyšných Hágoch. Martin, Obzor 1966.
FOLTYN, Ladislav: Slovakische Architektur und die tschechische Avantgarde 1918 – 1939. Dresden, Verlag des Kunst 1991. 236 p.
MRŇA, Ľubomír: Liečebný ústav Vyšné Hágy. Architektúra & urbanizmus 29, 1995, 1 – 2, p. 110 – 115.
DULLA, Matúš – MORAVČÍKOVÁ, Henrieta: Architektúra Slovenska v 20. storočí. Bratislava, Slovart 2002. 512 p.
Architektúra na Slovensku. Stručné dejiny. Ed. Henrieta Moravčíková. Bratislava, Slovart 2005. 182 p.

Photo:
Matúš Dulla, Alexander Jiroušek
Ground plan:
Department of Architecture Archive, ÚSTARCH SAV