Tours / Florence, Santa Maria Nuova: the oldest hospital in the world still active today

Are you a doctor, a nurse, do you work in the health sector? Surely you will be curious to discover the hospital which is still functioning after seven hundred years and is still rich in Medieval and Renaissance works of art.

Santa Maria Nuova was founded in 1288 by Folco Portinari, the rich Florentine merchant, the father of the more famous Beatrice, who was  the woman loved by Dante and sung in many of the famous works of the Supreme Poet.

With this tour we will visit some areas of the ancient hospital: the porch,, the atrium, the ancient apothecary, the ancient office of the "spedalingo" (the director of the time), the church and various other rooms of this building, which since its foundation it has always been at the forefront, indeed, it was ahead of its time.

Before the foundation of Santa Maria Nuova, in fact, there were only hospices for pilgrims, indigents and people in need of economic and health assistance.

Wealthy people, on the other hand, could afford the "cerusico", i.e. the private doctor at home.

Santa Maria Nuova is the first hospital in the modern sense of the term, despite having been founded in the Middle Ages and expanded under the Medici family in the Renaissance.

A hospital for the sick, therefore, with increasingly specialized doctors, no longer a hospice as a mere charitable and welfare function.

We will wander among the frescoes and works of art created by important Florentine artists as a tribute to this magnificent city institution or donated by wealthy patients upon their death as recognition for the care received.

We will therefore see paintings, crucifixes, statues and many works on display in places not accessible to today's hospital patients.

The spice cloister is not to be missed, it was once the hospital's medicinal garden, where the so-called "simple" herbs were grown, i.e. medicinal plants, raw drugs which, once distilled in the apothecary, became the precious medicines to be administered to patients.

We will be able to see and you will be explained the function and the healing beliefs around these potted plants that were used by the doctors of the hospital: Bitter Orange, Vinca, Sage, Dill and many other herbs such as Mandrake, which it was believed to have powerful magical properties.

We await you for a journey through time in the most extraordinary  hospital in the world, the model for all hospitals on the planet, all born later on the example of Santa Maria Nuova!