Foundation Hospital – First Modern Healthcare Institution in Zagreb

You must be wondering how citizens of Zagreb who needed medical care lived during the time of precursors to modern hospitals and almshouses. Only the most vulnerable received aid, but they were not treated in the way we expect today when life without doctors and hospitals seems unimaginable. Circumstances of that time were described by Šime Mazzura in his book Public Hospital at Jelačić Square in Zagreb: Report to the City Administration:

At the end of the last century, around 1785, diseases and misfortune struck Zagreb and its surroundings so severely that the sick, due to the lack of general hospitals, perished in the streets more from the lack of any help than from the severity of the illnesses. Everyone felt a need for a public hospital that would serve as a refuge for the suffering.

At all ages throughout history, there have been individuals ahead of their time who took initiative. In 1779, Zagreb magistrate approved an idea of the great county chief Nikola Škrlec to build the first proper hospital. Thanks to the approval of Bishop Maksimilijan Vrhovec to sell church property and invest funds in the construction to Zagreb City Administration, which granted the construction site where the former Jesuit garden at Harmica once stood, and with funds raised through several foundations and public donations, construction of the hospital began in 1794. Although unfinished, the building served as a military hospital during the Napoleonic Wars. Afterward, it was restored and completed due to necessity, under the guidance of Bishop Maksimilijan Vrhovec, who invited the Order of the Brothers of Mercy of St. John of God to take over the management and care of the hospital, which included a shelter for the infirm, a shelter for foreigners, a ward for the mentally ill, a pharmacy, and a chapel. The official opening took place in 1804.

A few years after the opening, reports noted that the hospital was located in an unsuitable location and lacked capacity. Over the years, it was gradually expanded, first with a second floor, and later with an eastern wing along the Bolnička ulica (now Gajeva ulica). The demand for a larger and more accessible hospital was greater than the completed building could accommodate. In 1883, a commission identified several problems with the hospital’s operations, from unsanitary conditions to poor organisation and a derelict state of the building. Additionally, in 1916, the Order of the Brothers of Mercy lost a legal dispute over ownership and vacated the hospital. The state took over, and from 1918, the hospital was officially called the Foundation Hospital in Zagreb. 

In 1929, a new foundation and special committee were established to oversee demolition of the old building and construction of a new one. In January 1931, relocation of the Foundation Hospital to Sveti Duh began, and the old hospital was demolished in April. The facade of the Foundation Hospital is preserved in the logo of its successor, Sveti Duh Clinical Hospital.

One interesting aspect of this building is a rejected proposal of the leaders of the Brethren of the Croatian Dragon Society, Velimir Deželić and Emilij Laszowski, not to demolish the building but to preserve it by turning it into the City Museum, the City Library, and the City Archives. 

(D. B.)

Sources:

1. Gračanin, Hrvoje; Grgin, Borislav; Nikolić Jakus, Zrinka. 2012. Povijest grada Zagreba: Od prethistorije do 1918. Novi liber. Zagreb.
2. Dugački, Vladimir. Povijest kliničke bolnice „Sveti Duh“: Prva dva stoljeća. 2019. Moj glas. Specijalno izdanje. http://d8.kbsd.hr/sites/default/files/CasopisMojGlas/Moj-glas-Specijalno-Izdanje-2019.pdf (accessed on 6 May 2020)