This article aims to link three different but complementary plans: the anti-tuberculosis clinics that were built in the Coimbra region in the 1930s; the novel The Magic Mountain, written by Thomas Mann in 1924, which was a defining example of the context of sanatoriums as spaces for physical and spiritual transformation; and the 1950 film Rumo à Vida, which promoted the work developed by Bissaya Barreto. Through an analysis that focuses on the meeting point between these three, the article endeavors to synthesize some of the parallels between literary, cinematographic, and architectural narratives that are set in sanatorium buildings.