On June 21, conference participants are welcome to join a night tour of the Leprosy Museum at 19.30.

The Leprosy Museum offers a visit to a unique cultural monument. 

St. Jørgen’s Hospital has existed as an institution since the early 15th century. The present buildings are from the 18th century, when the hospital was rebuilt after a devastating city fire in 1702. The building complex was protected as a heritage site as early as in 1927, while the institution still had a few residents. The hospital’s archives are part of the Leprosy Archives in Bergen, which are listed in the UNESCO program Memory of the World.

The hospital closed in 1946, when the two last residents had passed away, and in 1970 the Leprosy Museum opened in the hospital’s main ward. The church and the main building with bedrooms and kitchens have largely remained unchanged since the last residents lived here, some of them for over 50 years.

During a visit to the museum you can’t avoid imagining what life must have been like for the thousands of individuals who have lived parts of their lives here over the centuries, but of course visitors will also be able to learn more about leprosy and it’s prevalence in Norway, and about how new ideas and investment in research and health work put Bergen on the world map.

During the “Museum by night”, it will also be possible to visit the anniversary exhibition “The Discovery of the Leprosy bacteria 150 years“.