On S. Ignazio da Laconi Avenue, formerly Via degli Ospizi, the Vittorio Emanuele II rest home, known to the people of Cagliari as s’Arricoveru, “hospitalized the destitute and unfit for work and without family of either sex.”
Inaugurated on March 14, 1867, on the occasion of the King’s birthday, it occupied a wing of the Convent of the Capuchins, who had been present in Sardinia since 1591, when the foundation of the convent must date back. The building was expanded in 1648, so that it contained as many as 65 cells, and remained so for the next two centuries. In 1866 the law of confiscation of ecclesiastical property sanctioned its transfer to state property, and in the following year a wing of the convent was used as a Ricovero di mendicità (the first of such institutions in Sardinia) for the shelter of beggars and directed to banish begging in the city.
The shelter was sustained over time by annual appropriations from Cagliari City Hall, handouts from the Congregation of Charity and other moral institutions and societies in Cagliari, offerings and donations, and also by the rewards the old men received for accompanying them to funerals and by the proceeds from the sale of vegetables grown in the nearby vegetable garden.
In honor of the benefactors, a memorial plaque was made in the early 1900s, and marble busts were executed by Sartorio for the most generous, and these can still be found in the building’s lobby.
The name of Begging Home was changed around 1920 to Victor Emmanuel II Rest Home because it was dedicated to him.
The institute was run by the Unica Amministrazione degli Ospedali Riuniti from 1930 to 1971, and from this date until 1986 by the IPAB (Istituzione Pubblica di Assistenza e Beneficienza), after which it passed to the administration of the City of Cagliari.
The current appearance of the nursing home is the result of numerous transformations and functional upgrades and expansions that have profoundly altered the original structure of the building, which served its function until July 2004, when the new facility in Terramaini became operational.
