A Tintoretto in a hospital in Venice, the secrets of the Civil are revealed. “Beauty as a cure”
There is a hospital in Italy that not only treats patients but is also a treasure trove of culture, history and art treasures. He is the civilian of Venice, which is not by chance the leader in Italy of the program organized by the cultural association Hospitals Italian Historical (Acosi) which adopt the ancient hospitals where health activities are still carried out (Naples, Florence, Brescia, Milan, Rome ) and that today will present a program of guided tours, private itineraries, conferences, concerts and publications. Doors open for the most beautiful hospitals in Italy, therefore, for the whole day of 9 October. As mentioned, however, it is Venice and its Civil hospital that are the leader of this cultural project.
The reason? “We are the most beautiful hospital in Italy,” says Mario Po ‘, the director of the Scuola Grande di San Marco, whose facade is the entrance to the Civil Hospital. The modern history of which starts in 1819 but is actually the result of a much longer path, which even has its roots around 1200.
That is, when the first hospital for lepers was built in the Marciana area in Venice, but it was soon moved, for health reasons as we have now learned from the isolation imposed by the recent pandemic, on the island of San Lazzaro. When the epidemic was over, in the 16th century the Serenissima decided to create a healthier, and easier to access, place for the care of beggars. Here then is the first health facility, embryo of the current Civile, right along the Rio dei Mendicanti.
«A far-sighted operation», explains the director Po ‘, «which led to the realization of one of the first hospital projects in a modern sense». In the insula of San Giovanni e Paolo, however, there were previously other structures intended for shelter, one above all the hospital for the derelict.
Then came the era of domination, first French and then Austrian, with the suppression of moral entities and the creation in 1819 of the Ospedali Riuniti Civili. This new, reunified legal entity came to include the 13th century Grande di San Marco, which moved to Castello from the 15th century. So much so that until the First World War, the chapter house housed up to a sufficient room of patients.
Thus it was that a single hospital structure was created which included, in fact, the Scuola Grande, the former hospital of the Mendicants, the Dominican convent of Saints John and Paul, the convent of Santa Maria del Pianto. “And it is in this place that the happy encounter between the dimension of care and culture took place”, says Mario Po ‘. For the director of the Scuola Grande, the value of the Venetian hospital lies in its very ancient history, which nevertheless continues to live on every day.
«Here it is demonstrated that the double dimension of therapy and beauty can coexist», he explains, «they can be separated but both are aimed at the person: it is true for those who come to take care of themselves who benefit from the beauty of the place, it also applies to those who work there.
Here the museum of the history of medicine is kept, a monumental library with 20 thousand volumes, a historical archive whose first act dates back to 1194, an intact 18th century pharmacy, a museum of pathological anatomy, works by Veronese, Tintoretto, Guercino.
Venice with its civil hospital, with the invention of the lazarets and the ministry of health, has given an exceptional to Western medicine ».