The pathway dedicated to the discovery of the Binaghi Hospital Facility winds its way along the main body of the facility to introduce visitors to the city hospital, which since its inauguration in 1937 was dedicated to the care of people suffering from Mal sottile, the widely used euphemistic designation in the past for pulmonary tuberculosis. It was often equated with vampirism because people suffering from tuberculosis have red, swollen eyes, a pale complexion and cough up blood. Throughout history many famous people fell ill with consumption, such as the British poet John Keats,
the English writer Emily Bronte, the Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin, and many heroines of fiction and melodrama: Giacomo Leopardi’s Silvia and Iljuscia from The Brothers Karamazov, the Violetta from Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, and Mimi from Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème also died of consumption.
In 1927, during the Fascist period, the government entrusted the National Fascist Social Security Institute with the task of drastically intervening against the spread of tuberculosis and respiratory diseases. Between 1929 and 1940, the Italian sanatorium network was built with more than 60 facilities. The history of sanatoriums for the treatment of turberculosis is thus intertwined with the history of architecture and the history of our country, which will be retraced in an interesting journey between superstition and literature.
The Cagliari ASSL also intends to recover the ancient Binaghi Park health trails to be returned to the community and included in the therapy and prevention programs of ATS Sardegna.
