Santa Maria Bianca Hospital is a community hospital located in Mirandola, in the province of Modena, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
Founded in 1432 by the Battuti congregation, it takes its name from the hospital's patron saint, Santa Maria Bianca (St. Mary the White), so called because of her white cloak, identical to the one worn by the members of the confraternity. Before its current location, the hospital was formerly located in Piazza del Duomo and then in the former Jesuit monastery in Via Francesco Montanari.
History
Origins
First records of a "hospitale" in Mirandola dates back to 1311, in a document which also mentions two branches in Tiramuschio (today Tramuschio) and Borgo Bonaga (later called Borgofuro or Borgonovo). Another hospital run by the Hospital Brothers of Saint Anthony was located in Roncole. In 1385, the Mirandola hospitals received a considerable sum of money from certain inheritances; moreover, the ancient Statutes of the land of the municipality of Mirandola and the court of Quarantola of 1386 guaranteed exemption from duty to donors of flour or wheat, as well as movable and immovable property.
Foundation
The Sacred Hospice of Santa Maria Bianca was founded in 1432 by the Confraternity of the Misericordia dei Battuti, with the aim of "collecting and maintaining the exposed, housing pilgrims and caring for the poor, sick and insane". After a few years the hospice was enlarged thanks to the considerable inheritance of 550 pounds of bolognini left in 1448 by the nobleman Francesco, son of Antonio Padella of the Manfredi family. The following year, the regents of the Hospitale de Santa Maria Biancha received another inheritance with the will dated 15 March 1449 by Gerardo Padella (the last descendant of this noble and childless family), who donated all his possessions, with the clause that if it was decided to close the hospital all the money from the inheritance should be returned in full to the parish of San Michele arcangelo in Cividale. These bequests made it possible to erect a new building in Borgo Novo, next to the cathedral of Mirandola. In 1473 a fire destroyed the historical archive.
According to a document dated 13 May 1574, drawn up during the pastoral visit of Eustachio Locatelli, bishop of Reggio Emilia, the Mirandola confraternity annually elected a godfather and two massari, who supervised and administered the hospital. During the 17th century the hospice, under the protection of the Princes of Mirandola, was run by the padrino (from 1695 called prior and who administered the religious aspects), the massaro (who dealt with the financial aspects) and a council of eight people.
In 1764 the old hospital factories were established and, after two years, a project for a large building 150 mirandolesi fathoms long (95.7 metres) was approved. The hospital complex, inaugurated in 1767, had a façade characterised by a long portico along the Strada Grande (today's Via Giovanni Pico) and had two courtyards, one of which was smaller at the back, while the cemetery was located on the north side (to the side of the cathedral forecourt). The church of the Battuti was located in the cathedral square. In the years 1762-1764 the building was rebuilt and the portico extended to the cathedral square, where the new oratory of Santa Maria Bianca (later called the Oratory of the Mendicants or the Oratory of the Blessed Virgin Laureatana) was also built.
The hospital was transferred to the former Jesuit monastery in 1785, while the old building was first entrusted to the mendicant order and then housed the Royal Magistrate's Court of Mirandola and the prisons. The old building with its porticoes and the deconsecrated church of Santa Maria dei Battuti have been lost, having been demolished during the Fascist era for the construction of the Palazzo della Milizia in the 1930s.
Moving to the former Jesuit monastery
The hospital was run by the Confraternity of Mercy until 1779, when it was handed over to the General Congregation of Pious Lay Works and later, in 1791, to the General Administration of Pious Lay Works. In the meantime, however, the hospital had been transferred in 1785 to the large seventeenth-century former Jesuit monastery (now Via Francesco Montanari).
On 23 December 1807 the new Congregation of Charity was founded, which ran the hospital and the "Desco dei poveri" until it was suppressed in 1937.