Leros Psychiatric Hospital

Headquarters of the Italian naval administration of the island, from 1923-1943, it was converted by royal decree in 1957 into a psychiatric facility for seriously ill patients. The hospital reached the point of hosting more than 2,000 patients in 1980, while many complaints had been made to the Greek and international press about their living conditions. A significant part of the local population worked directly or indirectly with the institution. Today (2022) fewer than 200 patients are hosted in individualized conditions in independently maintained houses and with staff seconded on a case-by-case basis. During the refugee wave, in the period 2015-2020, the old hospital facilities were used as temporary detention facilities for refugees in very poor conditions. Today, an organized closed refugee facility has been created in the Xirokambos area. The building here was the airmen's dormitories (Caserma Avieri).