2010Vífilsstaoir Sanatorium 100th Anniversary - Set

In 1906 the Oddfellowloge No. 1 Ingólfur, appointed a committee with the aim of eliminating tuberculosis in Iceland. The Sanatorium Society was founded that same year and funds were raised to build the Vífilsstaðir Sanatorium. The sanatorium was designed and built by Rögnvaldur Ólafsson, one of the founders of the Icelandic Society of Engineers. The hospital was consecrated and taken into use September 5th 1910. Its first Head Physician was Dr. Sigurður Magnússon. Built to serve 80 patients, the Sanatorium accomodated a daily average of 130 patients in 1922. An estimated 20% of all deaths in Iceland in the thirties could be traced to tuberculosis. Vífilsstaðir remained a tuberculosis sanatorium until 1970. The hospital is now a part of the Landspitali University Hospital. In 2003 a contract was signed between Hrafnista Old People‘s Home and the Ministry of Health about the management of a nursing home at Vifilsstaðir.