St. Barbara-Hospital Duisburg, Medical building in Neumühl, Duisburg, Germany.
St. Barbara-Hospital is a multi-story brick building with large windows that displays architectural features typical of the early 1900s. The structure was designed with functional layouts for patient care and hospital operations, reflecting medical building standards of that era.
Construction began in spring 1905, and the official opening was set for 1 April 1906. Because of many meningitis cases in Hamborn, operations started early on 8 January 1906, while the building was still unfinished. The hospital was later run by the Katholisches Klinikum Duisburg and closed on 1 July 2013, when its departments moved to St. Johannes-Hospital in Duisburg-Hamborn.
The hospital served as a vital healthcare center for the industrial working community in Duisburg for more than a century. Its Catholic heritage reflected the religious institutions that supported workers and their families throughout the region.
The entire site is fenced off with construction barriers, and entering the grounds is subject to fines. The building is dilapidated and dangerous: in 2023 an homeless person died in a fatal fall. Viewing is therefore limited to the exterior from outside the fence.
A fire broke out in the roof truss on 4 November 2021, injuring no one but badly damaging the building. Because demolition stalled, the empty hospital became a known lost place and a shelter for homeless people; after a homeless man died in a fall in 2023, the whole site was fenced off and entering made punishable by fines.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,158 contributors worldwide.