Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.22586/ss.20.1.8
From City Hospital to City Almshouse (A Contribution to the Research into Hospitals and Welfare Establishments in Osijek)
Zlata Živaković-Kerže
Hrvoje Pavić
Abstract
The realisation that health care is one of the most significant aspects within the concerns of governance was awakened in the mid-18th century. A health and welfare institution, that is to say the Civic Hospital, was established in Osijek in 1741; one of its functions was to provide health care to the poor of the town which implies that it operated as an almshouse right from the start. The work of the Civic Hospital in the New Town stopped in 1874 with the construction of the new hospital building in the Lower Town and the opening of the General and Public Huttler Kohlhoffer Monsperger Foundation Hospital. From then on, the Civic Hospital facility was converted into the City Almshouse where old women and men were accommodated so that they should not perish from becoming homeless. From September 1, 1890 up until 1952 the care for the poor and those in need of care was provided by the Association of Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul from Zagreb. Since year after year the numbers of the indigent increased, in 1902, built to the western courtyard side was the building in which was located the Mijo Cseh Institution for the Care of the Mentally Ill located in the Civic Almshouse. The City Almshouse was a ground floor building and in the first decades of the 20th century it did not meet the spatial requirements, hence in 1936 a first floor was built on and a large number of the poor and infirm were cared for. As in 1952 the work and care of the Association of Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul in the City Almshouse was prohibited, the Peoples Committee of the town of Osijek registered the pre-war City Almshouse on May 20, 1954 in Martin Divald Street 2 as the Nursing Home for the Elderly and Infirm.
Keywords
Osijek; City Hospital; City Almshouse; Association of Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul of Zagreb; second half of the 18th to mid-20th century
Hrčak ID:
252029
URI
Publication date:
2.11.2020.
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