San Servolo
A short vaporetto ride from Piazza San Marco, San Servolo is one of the oldest islands in the Venetian Lagoon. It gets its name from Saint Servolo, a 3rd century martyr from Trieste. It now houses the Venetian International University and a museum, but it wasn’t always a place of learning. The island housed Benedict Monks for 500 years from the 8th century. Nuns fleeing a seaquake from the convents of Saint Leone and Basso joined them later. They left by 1615, due to the decay and neglect of the buildings. It was unoccupied until nuns fleeing the Turkish invasion of Crete arrived in 1647.
The Senate of the Republic of Venice chose San Servolo for a new military hospital, due to the ongoing war against the Turks. It relocated the remaining two nuns on 4th June 1716. The island’s inhabitants planted a range of flora for the island pharmacy to supply the military with medicine. The military part of the hospital closed on 31st December 1808.
History
A religious order, the San Giovanni di Dio, founded the asylum 1725. San Servolo was Venice’s official asylum for 250 years. It was known as “the island of the mad.” In 1798, Napoleon demanded anyone with symptoms of mental illness be incarcerated, regardless of gender or class. The asylum started accepting female patients. Noblewoman Anna Vendramin Loredan opened the Hospital of the 60 Wounded on 1st March 1809 for the “repugnant” poor people who wandered Venice. During its operation, it housed over 200,000 patients. Benito Mussolini had his wife, Ida Dalser committed there so he could marry Rachele Guidi.
On 13th August 1978, the hospital closed due to the Basaglia Law – a reform of psychiatric treatment introduced by the government, that forced the closure of all psychiatric hospitals. A year later, the government created the Institute for the Study of Social and Cultural Marginalization to preserve the documents from the asylum. The Venice International University founded a branch of the university in 1995 as a centre for research and education, and a collaboration from ten universities worldwide. The island contains a conference centre, a training centre and a church, inside of which are artworks of considerable artistic value. The park that surrounds the buildings is one of the largest in Venice.
The Museum
Architect Barbara Accordi set up the museum with the scientific aspects curated by professors Diego Fontanari and Mario Galzigna. It opened on 20th May 2006. The museum is split into 9 sections: the Laboratory; the Ambulatory; Didactic Products; Sickness Therapies; Straightjackets; the Sick; Lodgings; Pharmacy; and Anatomical Theatre. It’s known as the “Museum of the Insane Asylum – Madness Locked Away”.
The exhibits are all from the hospital, including the various forms of restraints used, such as: straitjackets, handcuffs, ankle locks, muffs and sleeves. The hospital regularly used treatments such as electroshock and electroconvulsive therapy. Hospital director Cesare Vigna, a close friend of Italian composer Guiseppe Verdiand, introduced music therapy. The asylum had its own piano. In art therapy, the patients created objects such as ship and wicker baskets. Hydrotherapy was in the form of showers and baths. Patients were locked in baths beneath a wooden lid for up to 12 hours. Submerged patients had breathing apparatus. The anatomical theatre contains 11 skulls and 12 brains and a 19th century table with its original surgical instruments.
There are also photos of the patients before and after admission. Most of them look healthier after their stay, as they had access to food and medicine.
San Servolo is a 10 minute vaporetto ride, with Line 20 leaving the San Zaccaria Pier every 20-30 minutes. Waterbuses from Santa Lucia station (Line 1, Line 2, Line 4, Line 5).
Read about our visit to San Servolo.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Servolo
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/museo-del-manicomio-san-servolo-insane-asylum-museum
https://servizimetropolitani.ve.it/en/insane-asylum-museum