Fontilles, the Spanish foundation that I represent, was founded in 1902 to care for leprosy patients. From the beginning, the Jesuit priest Carlos Ferris and the lawyer Joaquín Ballester, who together had the idea to construct a sanatorium, as well as those who promoted the project and managed and ran the sanatorium after it was built, had the intention of creating a place where the sick could be adequately cared for and also feel that they had freedom to choose how to live their lives.

For seven years, the Fontilles Foundation worked on bringing the idea for the sanatorium to life in Marina Alta, a highly endemic area in the northern part of Alicante province. In 1909, the sanatorium opened its doors under the name San Francisco de Borja Sanatorium to persons affected by leprosy from all over Spain.

The sanatorium was unusual for the time in that its model of care emphasized both medical and social approaches. In size and activity it grew into the form of a small village, with more than 300 patients and its own bakery, carpentry, blacksmith, printing and bookbinding services, shoe shop, hairdresser, and so on. Economic and other connections with society outside of the sanatorium generated a wave of solidarity with the people suffering from the disease.

Despite the success of the sanatorium’s model at both caring for the sick and increasing societal compassion for the suffering of people affected by leprosy, stigma and discrimination have remained deeply rooted throughout the world. 

At the Fontilles Foundation, we feel strongly that we must make known what happened to leprosy patients and learn from history so that humanity does not build irresponsible societies that are indifferent to what happens to those who suffer from illness and marginalization. We believe that governments should be involved in preserving leprosy-related history so that they gain motivation to eliminate discriminatory laws and promote social integration.

With the support of the University of Alicante and the Sasakawa Health Foundation, Fontilles has recovered, inventoried, cataloged, and digitized more than two hundred archival boxes with handwritten registration books, accounting, heritage, medical, scientific, religious, and social documents, as well as maps, plans, and medical histories of more than 3,000 diagnosed people. 

A portion of the archive is being shared online through a “Fontilles and leprosy in Spain” portal established within the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library, the world’s largest open-access repository of digitized Spanish-language historical texts. Still under construction, when it is finished, the portal will give worldwide access to journals, images, documents, and audio recordings that present a comprehensive view of daily life at the sanatorium over the past 120 years. While all of the original documents are in Spanish, visitors to the site can choose to navigate and read explanations in either Spanish or English. 

The audio recordings that will be shared on the portal are the result of an oral history project started in June 2016 to capture the voices and life stories of persons affected by leprosy still living at the sanatorium. To start, they will be a selection from nearly 60 hours of recordings completed with 18 residents. It is hoped that the scope of the project can be widened to include former residents and people who provided care. The full recordings and their transcripts are being preserved in the Archivo de la Diputación de Alicante (Archive of the Provincial Council of Alicante), along with the rest of the Fontilles archive. 

In addition to the parts of Fontilles heritage that can be archived, there are, of course, the buildings of the sanatorium, some of which are still in use today. In addition to the National Reference Center for Leprosy, the infrastructure hosts the Borja Geriatric Center and the Ferrís Center for Functional Diversity. A team at Polytechnic University of Valencia’s School of Architecture studied the set of buildings in relation to the landscape both across time and in the present to develop a description of the site’s heritage value and propose preservation measures and improvements. This analysis contributes to heightened appreciation of the development of the site and all those who participated in the life of the sanatorium.

Viewed comprehensively, these various acts of preservation and development reveal that Fontilles has stayed remarkably true over time to its founding principle of dignified treatment of its residents. 

Everything that has been done has been thanks to the important efforts of the people who at each moment have helped to preserve the history. The cataloging and digitization of over a century’s worth of documents and the creation of the portal hosted by the Miguel de Cervantes Digital Library could not have happened without support from the Sasakawa Health Foundation.

There are no words, nor enough space to summarize all the efforts made by Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, for all his support to the communities of persons affected by leprosy, his support for projects that preserve the history of leprosy, his support for initiatives to transmit the lessons of leprosy to future generations, the creation of networks and websites on leprosy, and his invaluable support for Fontilles. During his visit to our sanatorium, we were able to see his extraordinarily loving attitude towards our patients, which reflects the immense humanity that he possesses.

I would like to express Fontilles’ immense gratitude to Mr. Sasakawa and the Sasakawa Health Foundation for their invaluable help and the most sincere recognition for their enormous contribution to preserving the history of leprosy.