The Liberec councilors approved the sale of the former eye sanatorium

Liberec – The representatives of Liberec today approved the sale of the dilapidated eye sanatorium on the outskirts of the city in Machnín. Liberec will thus receive 20.863 million crowns. The price corresponds to the expert assessment, said Deputy Mayor Adam Lenert. The new owner of the three-hectare site will be the Prague company Domov Nepomuk, which plans to build an Alzheimer center with a capacity of 162 beds and later expand it with a retirement home.

The deputy welcomes the intention of the private company. "There will be community amenities that have always been there. So, this is not an intention that would burden the city in any way. I am very pleased that we managed to sell the property and that there is a prospect of creating a nice environment and good facilities for social services, which are needed in the city of Liberec," said Lenert. The city hall had no use for the site and had been trying to sell it since 2021.

The former eye sanatorium, also known as the castle or Kleinert villa, was originally a magnificent residence set in a maintained park forest with a view of the ruins of the Hamrštejn castle. Today, it is in a deplorable state and has long been leaking.

The Machnín castle was likely built as a family residence in 1882 by factory owner Adolf Schwab, a politician and owner of a textile factory. After nationalization, it served as a sanatorium where children from all over the country came to treat eye defects. The city owned the site until 1999 when it sold the castle building along with the caretaker's house and a guard tower on an area of nearly 500 square meters, retaining only the surrounding land, about three hectares. However, the plan of several Liberec doctors, who committed to the construction of a modern sanatorium, failed. Liberec regained all the buildings back into its ownership in 2019 for 2.8 million crowns.