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All French heritage classified by regions, departments and cities

  2. Divers
  3. Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
  4. Haute-Savoie
  5. 74190 Passy

  6. Sanatorium Martel de Janville

Sanatorium Martel de Janville en Haute-Savoie

Haute-Savoie

Sanatorium Martel de Janville

    280 Route de Martel de Janville
    74190 Passy
Sanatorium Martel de Janville
Sanatorium Martel de Janville
Sanatorium Martel de Janville
Sanatorium Martel de Janville
Sanatorium Martel de Janville
Sanatorium Martel de Janville
Sanatorium Martel de Janville
Crédit photo : Pmau - Sous licence Creative Commons

Timeline

XIXe siècle
Époque contemporaine
1900
2000
1932
Sanatorium control
1937
Building inauguration
4 décembre 1943
Crash of a German helicopter
2006
Medical decommissioning
2008
Registration for historical monuments
2013
Reconversion to housing
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui

Heritage classified

The sanatorium, interior and exterior, as well as the surrounding park (Box B 1753, 1754, 1758): inscription by order of 15 May 2008

Key figures

Pol Abraham - Architect Co-conceptor of sanatorium with The Same.
Henry Jacques Le Même - Architect Author of the project alongside Abraham.
Comtesse de Martel - Patron Donor at the origin of the construction.
Jean Prouvé - Designer Creator of room furniture.
Jules Leleu - Designer Prouvé collaborator for furniture.
Oberleutnant Brennecke - German pilot Victim of the 1943 crash.

Origin and history

The Sanatorium Martel de Janville, located in Passy en Haute Savoie, is the last establishment built by architects Pol Abraham (1891-1966) and Henry Jacques Le Same (1897-1997) for the Association of High Altitude Sanatorium Villages (AVSHA). Commanded in 1932 by a gift from the Countess of Martel, it was inaugurated in 1937 after interruptions due to financial and political difficulties. This building, emblematic of French Sanatorial architecture, incorporates innovations developed for other sanatoriums such as Roc-des-Fiz (1929) or Guébriant (1931).

Sanatorium is distinguished by its concentration of services in a unique building, with 170 single rooms equipped with furniture designed by Jean Prouvé and Jules Leleu. For officers and non-commissioned officers with tuberculosis, it adopts an asymmetrical plane with three wings articulated around a double axis and a conical chimney. Its architecture, combining straight and curved forms, reflects a rationalization of care and a break with traditional symmetrical models.

A German military helicopter accident on 4 December 1943 near the Sanatorium remains mysterious. The aircraft, a Focke-Achgelis Fa 223, sank, killing its two occupants. Two hypotheses persist: a rescue mission for missing mountaineers or a transport of V2-related equipment to a wind tunnel on Mount Lachat. The wreckage was recovered in 1944.

Disused in 2006 after being converted to a medical centre for the elderly, sanatorium was listed as a historical monument in 2008. Reconverted to housing in 2013, it regained its original orange colour. Its architecture prefigures modern hospitals, with a vertical stacking of rooms and an embryonic medical tray, marking a transition to a more rational organization of care.

Sanatorium also illustrates the evolution of therapeutic practices from collective cure galleries to individual modular cells. This model breaks with the traditional horizontality of sanatoriums, symbolizing social and medical control of patients. The ensemble, including park and ancillary buildings, bears witness to an Alpine architecture adapted to the health needs of the period.

External links

Page Wikipedia
Page Monumentum