Instituto Leprológico de Trillo [Trillo Institute of Leprosy]

Documents of the former Instituto Leprológico de Trillo are partially held in the Archivo Histórico Provincial de Guadalajara [Historical Archive in Guadalajara]

El Instituto Leprologico de Trillo was installed on the site of an eighteenth century spa, which was famous in the area for the healthy properties of the waters from the wells. These waters were recommended for many diseases such as the scrofula, rheum, leprosy, and others.

In 1770 King Carlos III inaugurated the spa, which enjoyed a great deal of popular success. For more than one century, many patients took the waters, and in 1872, the spa was renovated and enlarged so as to admit thousands of patients. However, the decline in popularity of this sort of center, during the twentieth century, and the effects of the Spanish Civil War, ensured that the spa was abandoned during the 1940s.

Probably, the increase of cases of leprosy in the Spanish post-war years, and the requirement for a sanitary center requiring a minimum economic investment, made possible the opening of this leprosy sanatorium on December 15, 1943. Its activities as a leprosy hospital came to an end in 1996, when only 30 leprosy patients, with an average age was 69 years and an average stay of 35 years were left.

El Instituto Leprologico de Trillo lodged patients from all over Spain and beyond, so when it closed, those who were still there came from Andalucia (19), Extremadura (2) Galicia (2), Valencia (2), Castilla-La Mancha (1), Castilla y Leon (1), Asturias (1), Marruecos (1) y Filipinas (1).

One part of the documentary archive is found in the Archivo Histórico Provincial de Guadalajara:

Documental series : Instituto Leprologico de Trillo

Number of files: 2; Signature: SAN-1599 and SAN-1608; Years: 1978-1990

Contents: relative formularies in the removal, admissions and final reports of patients, sanitary indicators, medical visits, correspondence, patients’ statistics, administrative documentation about the functions of the institution.

Entry made September 5, 2006