Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Bas-Buissons sanatorium, located in the woods of La Muette in Dreux (Eure-et-Loir), was built between 1928 and 1932 by architects Georges Beauniée and André Sarrut under the impulse of Mayor Maurice Villette. Intended to fight pulmonary tuberculosis, it included the Laennec clinic (sanatorium) and the Thérèse Villette preventorium. Designed to accommodate up to 1,000 patients, mainly children, it used solariums as its main treatment. Its modern Art Deco-style architecture optimised the sun thanks to its extended pavilions (up to 370 metres for the Pasteur Pavilion).

During its peak in the 1930s, sanatorium played a key role in public health, although its capacity was never fully attained. During World War II (1940-1945), its director Gabriel Roche saved Jews by falsifying medical certificates under the Vichy regime. As early as 1945, the decline began with medical progress: disused in 1956, he then served as a retirement home (1962-1980) and then received rare diseases until the 1980s. Abandoned in 1990, it became a famous haunted place, surrounded by legends (like that of a 14-year-old girl).

Purchased by the city of Dreux in 1999 for a symbolic franc, the site was partially classified as a historical monument in 2022. A rehabilitation project (€100 million) was launched in 2021 to transform it into a residential, hotel and cultural hub, including apartments, spa, ecolodges and artist residences. The Laennec Pavilion has already become a Mother Centre. The site, surrounded by walls since 2021 for security reasons, embodies both a medical heritage and a painful collective memory.

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