Plenty of mystery, myths and ghost stories surround the Sanatorio Carlos Duran (Carlos Duran Sanatorium) in Cartago Costa Rica, today an abandoned building that many believe is haunted which attracts curious visitors.

The Sanatorium was built back in 1915 to treat patients suffering from tuberculosis, its distant and isolated location made it ideal to keep patients confined. It had capacity for 300 people. By 1963 the hospital had stopped receiving patients since the tuberculosis epidemic had ended.

The building was later used as a prison, but in 1973 the eruptions of the Irazu Volcano caused severe damage to the infrastructure, particularly the roofs, the building was closed down.
Since then and until today, this site has become a place of interest for national tourists but also for foreigners who love adventure and a little mystery; the stories about the building include the ghosts of a nun and a girl that wonder around the old building.

Students of the Technology Institute of Costa Rica consider that the Sanatorium’s infrastructure as well as its location has a great potential to develop a sustainable cultural tourism.
Even though the place receives plenty of visitors today, adequate management or development of its potential are nonexistent.

Students of Sustainable Tourism Management are promoting an initiative that would give relevance to the historic and architectural value of the site, creating trails with historic information that would promote the visits of national and foreigners that also visit other attractions in the area such as the Irazu and Turrialba Volcanoes.

It is also important to implement controlled access in the area since part of the infrastructure represents dangers for the visitors. Adequate signs and the use of natural resources is also necessary.

Currently the Duran Sanatorium is under the administration of the National Union of Small and Medium Size Costa Rican Agriculture and Livestock Producers.