Aguas Radium Hotel - Sabugal, Portugal
Posted by: 
tmob
N 40° 19.119 W 007° 15.320
29T E 648233 N 4464585
Nowadays it's an abandoned building, but in the beginning of the XX century functioned there a thermal hotel and were produced the "Aguas Radium" (Radium Waters)
Waymark Code: WMB5CP
Location: Guarda, Portugal
Date Posted: 04/07/2011
Views: 12
«Early research on the radioactivity of the Portuguese waters date back to May 1910, at that time when there came to be in Portugal a concern for companies wanting at all costs that its waters were radioactive. This phenomenon has happened in several countries in Europe and was designated as "fever of radioactivity."
As at that time radio was considered beneficial to health, the presence of an emanation of that element in the water came to be regarded as an important factor in its therapeutic action. Moreover, the presence of the emanation of radioactive elements was itself considered a key factor for recovery of the water itself.
As a result of "fever of radioactivity," near the village of Sortelha, a slope of the Sierra Pena was sent to build a thermal hotel for a Spanish Count who, hearing of the miraculous waters with radio, he went there in order to cure a skin disease that her daughter suffered. It is said also that these waters would cure diseases, mainly skin, liver, kidneys, heart, hip, atherosclerosis, etc..
The baths were very popular with Portuguese and foreign and it is thought that there was exportation of water as an archaeologist in 1996 found a water bottle in Sortelha intact where it was written "Radium Water - Caria, Portugal."
The discovery of the health hazards posed by radioactivity and the atomic energy during World War II caused the bankruptcy of the hotel complex and industrialist who years earlier had come to be owned by the British.
Today, through the vegetation that covers the Sierra Pena, one can see and visit the imposing monument remains abandoned despite having existed in the 90's a restoration project.»
-- Source