The Civil Hospital of Legnano is the largest hospital of the ASST Ovest Milanese and is located in Legnano, a municipality in the metropolitan city of Milan, Lombardy. The first pavilion of the Legnano hospital was built in 1903 in Via Candiani with contributions from the citizens of Legnano, with local industrialists playing a leading role.. During the 20th century, the Legnano hospital underwent several expansions.. The old pavilions were replaced by the new hospital, which is located on Pope John Paul II Street in Legnano and was inaugurated on February 4, 2010.
Background
Health care in Legnano over the centuries For centuries Legnano did not have an organized center of health and welfare care.. The first facility located in Legnano that began to partially provide hospital care was the Sant'Erasmo Hospice, which was built at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries: otherwise the Legnano community depended on hospitals in Milan. The first two hospitals opened in west-central Lombardy were founded in the 14th century in Rho and Abbiategrasso.
The first significant change occurred in 1784, with the founding of the pellegrosario of Legnano, i.e., an organized health facility dedicated to the treatment of pellagra, i.e., a disease that appeared in the early 17th century that was due to the excessive consumption of corn at the expense of meat.. The disease was particularly prevalent among the peasant population, given the high cost of meat. The Austrian authorities, who ruled the Duchy of Milan at that time, first planned the Cistercian monastery of Parabiago and then the convent of Santa Chiara in Legnano, a monastic building founded in 1492 and located in today's Corso Italia, between Via Giolitti and Largo Seprio, as the site of the pellegrosario for the Legnanese.
In 1784, through a government decree, the convent of Santa Chiara was deconsecrated and converted into a pellegrosario.. The building was particularly suitable because it was provided with its own irrigation ditch, where the water needed to cure the disease could be easily drawn.. The direction of the facility was entrusted to Gaetano Strambio, a medical officer who made decisive studies on the treatment of pellagra.. In particular, Strambio understood during his stay in Legnano that it was not a seasonal disease, but rather a disease that affected the digestive and nervous system regardless of the season. The pellegrosario of Legnano came to accommodate up to 100 beds and became a real landmark, so much so that it was visited in 1785 by Emperor Joseph II of Habsburg. Some budgetary problems due to the management of the facility led to its closure in 1788: the people of Legnano suffering from pellagra were thus once again obliged to go to the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan despite the fact that their city had been the protagonist of important advances in the study of the disease..
Noteworthy among the Legnanese medical officers, that is, among the doctors employed by Italian municipalities who provided health care to the poor, was one of the protagonists of the Risorgimento struggles, Saule Banfi.. The Legnanese patriot, who practiced medicine in the first part of the 19th century, actively participated in the Risorgimento heroic deeds and was arrested during the Five Days of Milan (March 1848). Saule Banfi won the first surgery competition organized in Legnano, the notice for which was issued by the municipality in March 1833. Banfi was not, however, appointed medical officer in surgery, a role that was instead assigned to Stefano Colonetti: this decision was made by Dr. Rinaldi, who chose Colonetti because he had a degree in surgical medicine.. In fact, the notice specified that it would be preferable for the future medical officer specializing in surgery to have this degree..
The need to build a real hospital in Legnano was felt in the second part of the 19th century, when the centuries-old agricultural village turned into an industrial town.. Until then, the care of the sick was the responsibility of the charitable institutions; after the Unification of Italy, a series of laws obliged the latter to partially change their purpose, giving up the care of the sick, which passed to the local state agencies.. Added to this event was the aforementioned transformation of Legnano from an agricultural village to an important industrial center. This led to a conspicuous increase in the population and an increase in the number of cases registered for certain diseases; the latter was mainly caused by the working conditions, which were extremely harsh both in terms of the pace (Legnano workers of the time carried out their activities up to 11 hours a day) and the workplaces, which were damp, poorly lit and, more generally, unhealthy, not to mention the fact that child labor was widely employed in Legnano factories, with all the consequences of the issue.. All of this caused a significant increase in work-related accidents: this social backlash began to spread among civil society in Legnano the idea that a hospital was needed in the city, given the scale of the problem..
The committee for the building of the hospital In this social and industrial context, the most pressing need for the people of Legnano at the time became the construction of a modern hospital.. Until then, the vast majority of the people of Legnano suffering from serious illnesses were obliged, as already mentioned, to go to the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan. In order to travel to the hospital in the Lombard metropolis, the sick Legnanese had to endure a long journey on often uncovered wagons traveling along rather bumpy roads. Instead, for less serious illnesses or diseases, three medical officers and two pharmacists operated in Legnano. This local health organization, with the constant increase in population and with the aggravation of labor-related diseases in Legnano's industries, became obsolete: therefore, the idea that Legnano needed a proper hospital, organized according to modern criteria, began to mature more and more.
The first concrete initiative aimed at building the hospital is indirectly related to the visit that Giuseppe Garibaldi made to Legnano on June 16, 1862. During the speech he delivered, the Hero of Two Worlds invited the people of Legnano to erect a monument dedicated to the Battle of Legnano (May 29, 1176).. To build this monument, the municipality of Legnano allocated 10,000 liras. The first monument, which was unveiled on May 29, 1876 on the seventh centenary of the battle, remained intact for a short time: due to the curtailment of the allocated sum, the monument was made of papier-mâché and thus melted with the first rains.. The second version of the monument, the present-day monument to the Warrior of Legnano, which was the work of Enrico Butti, was then unveiled in the year 1900. Earlier, just for the realization of Butti's work, a public subscription was opened to raise an adequate amount of funds. However, not everyone agreed with the lavish spending on the monument. Legnano city councilor Leopoldo Sconfietti pronounced, during the city council meeting of April 19, 1897, these words:
Mayor Fedele Borghi responded by pointing out that the money raised for the erection of the monument could not change its intended use, notwithstanding the need to build the hospital.. The discussion, which had now begun, continued in the newspapers of the time, which began to give strong emphasis to this need for Legnano. As a consequence, a few weeks after Leopoldo Sconfietti's aforementioned speech in the city council, a committee, albeit unofficial, was created for the future hospital. Among its initiatives was to raise awareness of this need by distributing leaflets and posting posters along city streets. An excerpt from a poster, which was signed by eight prominent Legnano personalities, read:
The goal was finally achieved: both the municipal administration and the public opinion became aware of this need of the Legnano community..
The fund-raising committee At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, it was rare for city authorities to turn to central state bodies for funds to carry out their public works.. Instead, popular subscriptions, or the raising of funds through donations from private individuals, industries, associations, etc were very common.
Even for the construction of the civil hospital in Legnano, it was chosen to organize a popular subscription.. The first concrete step in setting aside the necessary sum for the building of this work was a charity dance party organized in 1889 during the feast of St. Magnus inside the nursery school hall in Corso Magenta. About 1,000 liras were collected during this event, still a very small sum compared to what was needed, but enough to open a passbook at the savings bank.
The first official step of the Legnano municipality was taken on May 30, 1899, when the city council resolved to establish an official committee whose purpose would be to raise the necessary funds for the construction of the hospital.. This committee consisted of the mayor of Legnano, the provost, the president of the Legnano Congregation of Charity and other distinguished people of the city. Notary Cesare Candiani, who was also president of the aforementioned Congregation of Charity and would later be the founder and first president of the Legnano hospital, was elected as chairman of the committee. The municipality of Legnano would later dedicate the street that runs alongside the so-called “old entrance” of the historic Legnano hospital to Cesare Candiani.
During the first meeting of the committee, which took place on February 19, 1900, it was decided to focus on the subscription open to Legnano's citizens and industrialists.. Entrepreneurs were then sent a letter asking for donations of funds for the construction of the hospital. The most generous industries were then Franco Tosi and Cotonificio Cantoni: the latter, in particular, pledged to donate an annual sum to the future hospital having in return three sleeping accommodations reserved for its workers. On the other hand, with regard to fundraising among the citizenry, the committee decided to invite citizens to deposit their donations by May 1900 at the counters of the Banca di Legnano.
The committee's initiatives made the amount raised reach 350,000 liras, which was sufficient to get the design phase of the future hospital started.. The task of drawing up the design was given to architect Luigi Broggi of Milan. Broggi decided to provide his work free of charge as a tribute to Eugenio Cantoni, an entrepreneur and prominent personality of the Alto Milanese as well as the historical president of the cotton mill of the same name. At this point the municipality of Legnano intervened again, officially decreeing the formation of a new committee, this time intended to coordinate the foundation of the hospital. This second committee consisted of Mayor Fedele Borghi (who assumed the chairmanship), the provost of Legnano Domenico Gianni, Cesare Candiani, Antonio Bernocchi, Carlo Dell'Acqua, Francesco Dell'Acqua, Enea Banfi, Gabriele Cornaggia Medici, Carlo Cornaggia Medici, Giuseppe Calini, Cesare Saldini, Gianfranco Tosi and Leopoldo Sconfietti, i.e., the most prominent personalities of Legnano at the time.