NOTE SULLA MANCATA COSTRUZIONE DI UN OSPEDALE PSICHIATRICO PROVINCIALE IN ISTRIA NELLA SECONDA METÀ DEL XIX SECOLO

Abstract

Records about the need for a psychiatric hospital in Istria date back to the early 19th century). This article presents the views on the issue expressed by advisors of the National Council of Istria more than half a century later. It starts with the session held on 15 March 1864 and follows the development of views the National Council held, from the motion to build a new mental hospital in at the feet of Monte Ghiro to the actual construction of the “Santorio Santorio” Provincial Hospital (still existing) at the hill of St Mihovil in Pula. The paper also investigates the reasons why the Council advisors abandoned the project of building the psychiatric hospital in Istria in favour of a home for the mentally ill in Trieste, where many Istrian patients were provided accommodation from as early as the end of the eighteenth century until the end of World War II. During the rule of the Habsburg Monarchy, many other cities of the Empire hospitalised mental patients from Istria, whose pitiful condition was reported by Matteo Campitelli at the session of the Istrian Provincial Parliament in 1886.