Between stigma and dawn of medicine: the last leprosarium in Croatia.

In an attempt to reconstruct the function of the last leprosarium in Croatia, situated in the little town of Metkovic in the Neretva valley, we used local folk tales and compared them with different data sources, such as register of deaths in the Roman Catholic parishes in Metkovic and the nearby village of Vidonje, archived local newspapers, building documents, and different artifacts from the beginning of the 20th century. We identified individuals and families who were treated in the leprosarium during its existence from 1905, when it was built, until 1925, when it was closed down. We analyzed why the Neretva river valley was chosen for the isolation of lepers. It seems that the geographical position of the region, close to the endemic seat of the disease in the neighboring Bosnia, was more important for the decision to build the leprosarium than the incidence of leprosy or some recent outbreak of the disease in Croatia. Building of leprosariums, such as this one in Metkovic, was a part of tradition of separating lepers from human community. This was considered as a socially and medically justified behavior in a time when it was not possible to identify the cause of leprosy and apply the proper treatment.