In the Sierra de Alfaguara mountain range, there is an old TB hospital. Formerly a ruin, it has now been restored by the Alfacar Town Hall.
It was built as a charitable project by a German woman, Berta Wihelmi, to help treat the disease that had taken her brother’s life.
Berta Wilhelmi accomplished a great deal of charitable projects throughout her lifetime. A woman ahead of her time, she was deeply affected by the social problems that beset her fellow townsfolk. She was born in Germany in 1858 and arrived in Granada at the age of twelve. She had an older brother named Ferdinand (Fernando), who became the German Consul to Granada.
She played a significant role in the Institución Libre de Enseñanza (Free Education Institute). She also became involved in the feminist struggle and managed her father’s factory when he died and left it to her, although not very successfully. In 1912, she founded a co-educational school in Pinos Genil and a public library, both supported by the Town Council.
She also established the first children’s camps in Granada, as well as a number of health centres for treating TB. Later in life, she created the Patronato Antituberculosos de la Alfaguara (Alfaguara Anti-TB Trust). Her social enterprise culminated in the construction of the Sanatorio de la Alfaguara (Alfaguara Sanatorium) in Alfacar in 1923, in which she invested all her savings.
In the spring of 1931, a stroke rendered her physically and mentally unfit, and ultimately led to her death on 29 July 1934.
