The Albert Schweitzer hospital, founded in 1913 in Lambaréné, in the Middle Ogooué province of Gabon, takes its name from its founder Albert Schweitzer. This hospital, on the banks of the River Ogooué, is a site of huge historical interest. For 90 years, men and women have been providing care, instruction, curing and relieving symptoms, and building facilities together, based around the humanistic principles of one man, Albert Schweitzer.

>> We invite you to take an intimate and moving tour of the site by means of photos

Lambaréné remains closely associated with the person who made history here: Doctor Albert Schweitzer:
Born in Alsace in 1875, this French doctor, musician and theologian was the son of a protestant minister who taught him to play the piano at an early age. He studied music and Protestant theology at university before completing a doctorate in philosophy, then in theology. Driven by a profound humanism, he decided to become a doctor. Partisan of a dogmatic liberalism, he was deeply concerned about suffering in Africa and decided to found a hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon. He began his career as a doctor in an old poultry shed which he quickly transformed into an operating theatre. With the modest means at his disposal, he added some small bamboo huts where his patients could be accommodated and cared for.

His departure for Lambaréné in 1913 enabled him to fulfil his dream until the outbreak of war. Sent back to France, where he was interned in two different camps, he did not return to Africa until 1924. On his return, he found little remaining of his first hospital, with most of the buildings collapsed and in decay. The hospital had to be rebuilt, a task that continued until the autumn 1925, by which time the hospital was able to offer decent living conditions to 150 patients and those accompanying them. A huge famine and dysentery epidemic proved to Schweitzer that the hospital was too small and that the site on which the mission stood was not large enough to build an extension. He made up his mind to build a third hospital, some 3 km upstream of the previous site.

In 1949, Schweitzer left for the United States where he is considered to be the "greatest man of his century". He received the Peace Prize from the German Booksellers Association and was elected to the Académie Française in 1951. He was also awarded the Paracelse Medal and Prince Charles Medal (Sweden) in 1952. In 1953, he won the Nobel Prize for Peace and it was this award that enabled him to finish building his "Village of Light" (lepers’ village).

Under the threat of nuclear war and persuaded by Norman Cousins, Nawaharlal Nehru, Albert Einstein and his wife, he broke with his customary reserve on matters involving politics and launched an "appeal to humanity" on Radio Oslo on 23 April 1957 in a bid to get the atomic bomb tests stopped. He died in Africa in 1965.

The site’s bid to gain World Heritage status
Schweitzer’s third hospital was enlarged and continues to care for large numbers of patients to this day. The second hospital, no longer in use, has been turned into an historic attraction for visitors along with Dr Schweitzer’s house which stands on the same site.

Experts, both national and international, have visited the Albert Schweitzer hospital in Lambaréné to evaluate the site (or rather the hospital’s oldest building) and to finalise the bid for its inclusion as a Unesco World Heritage site.

The project to win the hospital inclusion as a UNESCO world heritage site was initiated in 2005 by Philippe Arvel, Vice-President of the urban community of Arras, in Switzerland, with the support both of UNESCO’s Permanent delegate in France, Jean Guiguenou and of the late President of the Gabonese Senate, Georges Rawiri. If the project is successful, the Schweitzer hospital will become the second site in Gabon to be designated a World Heritage site, following the inclusion of the Lopé Okanda National Park in 2007. It would increase tourism in Gabon, particularly in this province, and foster both socio-economic development in the region and the preservation of original infrastructure.

>> We invite you to take an intimate and moving tour of the site by means of photos

To find out more about the history of the hospital and life of Doctor Albert Schweitzer

Gabonart.com, June 2008