Miðhoydalar - A little green spot Traditional Cache
Team PatMid: Disabled until I have time to check the place /Team PatMid
Miðhoydalar - A little green spot
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Hoydalar is the beautiful green valley between Hoyvík and Tórshavn with several trails. Try walking around the area and experience the peace and quiet of nature. From the cache site you will have an excellent view of Svartafossur, the famous waterfall of Tórshavn. Turning the other way you will see the sea and Nólsoy.
If you cross the main road Hvítanesvegur you will arrive at the gymnasium of Tórshavn, Studentaskúlin í Hoydølum, popularly called simply "Hoydalar". Some of the school buildings were originally build as a tuberculosis sanatorium.
The tuberculosis sanatorium was built in 1908 treating people from all over the Faroes. As there was no curative treatment, the patients were simply nursed and fed properly and every day they were placed in roofed verandas to get as much fresh air as possible. The doctors from Tórshavn consulted the sanatorium a couple of times a week, but in the thirties, the Danish Doctor Lynge was hired to run the socalled chest clinic at Queen Alexandrine’s Hospital in Tórshavn and the sanatorium in Hoydalar. In 1936 the Faroese Doctor Vilhelm Magnussen was appointed specialist in tuberculosis. When Magnussen was appointed, the tuberculosis was more widespread on the Faroes than ever. There was, as already mentioned, no efficient cure, and in those early years he used a common technique to “blow” air into the chest to make the infected lung rest. From the start of the 20th century, scientists had tried to develop an effective vaccine against tuberculosis. But the vaccine did not become available on the Faroes until 1946, and Dr. Magnussen now started an intense campaign. He travelled all around the islands with nurses and checked and vaccinated anyone who came out negative in the tests. In 1950 came the final breakthrough, as scientists developed medicine which could cure tuberculosis. In combination with the effective vaccination programme, the disease was finally eradicated. In 1955 the campaign stopped, and in 1961 the Tuberculosis Sanatorium moved to smaller premises at the Main Hospital in Tórshavn. The old buildings in Hoydalar were taken over by the Faroese Gymnasium.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gnxr n yvggyr erfg