MATERNITE SUISSE D’ELNE

Château d'en Bardou, an elegant Art Nouveau building completed in 1902, topped with a glazed dome and originally built on 4 equal branches, in a Greek cross, was commissioned by the industrialist and politician Eugène Bardou. This large residence illustrates the extraordinary economic growth of Roussillon.
This castle, rented by the Secours Suisse d'Aide aux Enfants des Victimes de Guerre, was transformed into a maternity hospital between 1939 and 1944 by the teacher and nurse Elisabeth Eidenbenz (1913 – 2011), decorated with the Legion of Honor. in 2007. His fight will allow the birth of 595 children from mothers of various nationalities and faiths. The Swiss Maternity Hospital, classified as a Historic Monument in 2013, is a symbol of hope and peace, inscribed in the European memory circuits of the XNUMXth century.

Built in 1900, this castle welcomed during the period 1939-1944 mothers about to give birth, interned in the camps of Argelès-sur-Mer, Rivesaltes, Saint-Cyprien and Gurs.
Thanks to the courage and determination of a young nurse from the Swiss Red Cross, Elisabeth Eidenbenz, more than 600 children were kept away from the sordid camps there, until it was closed by the Germans in 1944.

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