Alexandre Yersin Memorial Sites

Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943) was born in Switzerland to a Swiss father and a French mother. He studied in Switzerland and later moved to France where he obtained a degree in medicine.

He travelled to Nha Trang for the first time in 1891. At the end of 1899, he came back and established the Pasteur Institute. He devoted 50 years of his life to microbiology, virology, and epidemic research and he was the one to develop a vaccine against the bubonic plague.

Living modestly, he gained the trust of Con hamlet villagers. He travelled in the mountains and recorded his observations. He also recommended to the government to establish a hill station in what is now Dalat.

Yersin died in Nha Trang on 1 March 1943. According to the instructions in his will, his body was buried with his face touching the ground and facing the sea so that he could forever embrace his second homeland. 

Source TCDLVN