The building
Museo Delta Antico
The 18th-century “Ospedale degli Infermi”
Comacchio’s ancient Ospedale degli Infermi is a beautiful and treasured testimony to the style and social discussion of Neoclassicism.
Built between 1778 and 1784, it was constructed by the Municipality of Comacchio, at the instigation of Pope Clement XIV.
Conceived as a “sacred” place, a true temple of health, the Ospedale was erected to help “suffering humanity” – as is stated on the plaque on the main entrance door – “so that poverty and neglect are not an obstacle to achieving health”. Nevertheless, it was also characterised by a highly efficient, innovative facility.
The project was assigned and entrusted to the architect Antonio Foschini (1741-1813), Venetian by birth but Ferrarese by adoption. He completed the building’s façade and its main body.
The rear, with its less solemn, but equally exquisite façade, is the work of Ferrara native Gaetano Genta (1750-1837), the architect who replaced Foschini in overseeing the works and completing the building in 1780.
The hospital was opened by decree of Eugene Napoleon, viceroy of Italy, on 15 May 1811 and remained in operation until the late 1970’s.
Now, as then, the imposing building stands on the low houses that make up the prevailing urban fabric of the city of Comacchio.
The deliberately grand façade consists of a porch with four imposing columns supporting a triangular pediment and two side buildings: one for the oratory and the other for the pharmacy. Two bell-gable rise to the sides of the pediment, the ideal continuation of the pilasters that mark the border with the side wings. The materials play on the contrast between the red of the bricks, the bright white of the Istrian stone, and the warm whites of the plastered parts.
Completed between 1997 and 2013, the restoration returned the building’s interior volumes to their original design, thereby eliminating the partitions built in its large spaces over time to meet the hospital’s needs, in addition to the building’s subsequent temporary functions.
Today the original structure is again clearly visible, with its remarkable architectural values and clear, efficient organisation.
Ground-floor services included the wood-house (with brick vaults to contain any possible fires), a laundry room, a tank for rainwater, food storage facilities, and the kitchen, with two large fireplaces which, because of the pipes in the walls, were also used to heat patient rooms on the first floor. The chaplain’s and the caretaker’s apartments were on the mezzanine floor.
Hospitalized patients were housed in rooms on the first floor, subdivided into two separate wings: one for men and one for women. The areas for the sick were large, bright, and well-ventilated, based on an innovative, modern approach. There were also rooms set up as an infirmary, a surgery, and a delivery room. From the women’s wing, Mass in the oratory could be attended by means of two windows with grilles. The structure at the back of the building was the doctor’s house. The mortuary cell was located in the courtyard.
Il museo
