Old foundation piles of the Academic Hospital of Leiden

These piles are about one hundred years old.

The old hospital consisted of a collection of seperate buildings, every disease its own building. Inbetween the buildings there was greenland and peace and quite, so that the patients could convalesce. The first plans were drawn up in 1910, the hospital was finished in 1928. By then the seperate building system was out of favour and proved ineffective. It could be described as several seperate hospitals, because the buildings all had to have support services. The transport of patients between buildings was also cumbersome and the peace and tranquility disappeared with the motor car. So in 1965 they decided to build a new hospital, it took until 1980 for the building to start. Only a couple of years ago the whole project was finished, with the completion of the Education and Research buildings of the Faculty of Medicine.

A large area was left without buildings after the old hospital buildings were demolished, they removed the underground service tunnels between the buildings, but left the foundation piles.

I wonder what will happen to them.