INTRODUCTION
The Ospedale-Sanatorio "Col. D'Avanzo" is a specialized pulmonary provincial hospital in Foggia (Viale Degli Aviatori, 2) and hospitalizes all patients with acute and chronic respiratory diseases.
Front view of the Hospital
A BACKGROUND HISTORY
The hospital history began during the first post-war period when the absence of a local Sanatorium Hospital represented a serious issue for the entire society. This problem led people to seek help from home-doctors to treat epidemics. The constant fight against malaria, tuberculosis and typhus required an urgent solution to the local authorities1. The serious problem of tuberculosis was energetically dealt with by the Lawyer De Meo in the early 1920s, finding the support of the Marquis Carlo Isastia, of the Cav. Antonio Balsamo and of the Cav. Antonio De Biase2. They therefore decided to build a new pavilion to be used as tubercolosario.
Hospital entrance today
The principal of the Province, De Meo, the mayor Perrone and the president of the Ospedali Riuniti of Foggia, carried out various inspections in the outskirts of the city to find the most suitable site for the realization of the Sanatorium. The town of Foggia in 1930 bought the land to build it: an area of 57,000 square meters was chosen on a road, which connected the town of Foggia with the small town of Ascoli, and close to the new circumvallation3.
The project was carried out by Ing. Carlo Celentani Ungaro; the three-storey building was subdivided as follows: on the first floor the male section, on the second the female one4.
The interior of the hospital
Structure
The section of the ambulatory also included a room for bacterioscopic and chemical-clinical research, a room for the investigation-interrogation of the patient and family members, as well as a small dark room for laryngoscopic examinations. The building site was inaugurated in 1934 and in the end of 1939 the work were almost finished.
Characterized by a T-shaped planimetric layout, the building is surrounded by a large park, which guaranteed to the patient the possibility to breathe pure air, not contaminated by the epidemic5.
First floor plan of the Sanatorium6
General planimetry of the Sanatorium7
The new Sanatorium was transformed into a military hospital during the Second World War; on January 26, 1947, it was returned by the American authorities to the Italian authorities8. The anti-tuberculosis hospital will then be named after Colonel Lorenzo D'Avanzo, who died in Galz-Gdeif-Ghirba, in Africa, in June 1940 and was awarded a gold medal for memory. The Ospedale-Sanatorio "Col. D'Avanzo" hosted the Italian Red Cross during the Second World War, while continuing to treat tuberculosis patients9.
Today the old nosocomium is a hospital, managed by the Puglia Region, and it's still possible for the patients to go for a walk in the park.
View of the frontal park today
Departments of the hospital
- Allergology
- Cardiology
- Clinical Pathology
- Dermatology
- Forensic medicine
- Pathological Anatomy
- Physical medicine
- Pneumology
- Radiodioagnostic
- Rheumatology
- Photos and main text by Francesca De Gaetano moc.liamg|99ycnarfaged#| and Carola Pia Di Cataldo moc.liamg|99odlatacidalorac#|, courtesy of Biblioteca Provinciale of Foggia (December 2018).
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Bibliography
- Anonimo, Cinque anni di amministrazione fascista, 1927-V - 1931-IX, Comune di Foggia, Foggia (1932?), pp. 234
- Anonimo, "Per l'erigendo tubercolosario", Il Foglietto, Foggia 1928, pp. 4 e ss.
- Isabella di Cicco (a cura di), Architettura di Foggia in epoca fascista, Amministrazione Comunale, Foggia 2003, pp. 239