The insurance company AXA, together with the Heritage Foundation, has granted a donation of 100,000 euros to the Elna Maternity Hospital. This contribution will make it possible to complete the sum needed to carry out the restoration work on the emblematic Bardou castle, which housed the maternity hospital until 1944, and reopen it.
The donation has been announced through the social network X by the mayor of Elna, Nicolas Garcia. Since the end of April, access was only possible to the ground floor of the building and the garden due to the poor condition in which the property is located.
With the aim of obtaining the necessary funds for the restoration of the building and being able to reopen the doors of the maternity hospital, until now several actions had been carried out, especially crowdfunding, promoted by the City Council and the association of friends of the maternity hospital.
Almost 600 babies were born in the Swiss maternity hospital in Elna, children of refugees from the Spanish Civil War who were interned in nearby concentration camps. In 2013, after a renovation that turned it into a museum space, the Bardou castle, known as the maternity hospital, opened its doors to pay tribute to the Swiss teacher and nurse Elisabeth Eidebenz.