The First Hospital
The hospital was originally an initiative of a commission formed by distinguished members of the numerous Italian immigrant community of the city. Its foundation stone was laid on March 12, 1854, on a tract of land donated by a priest, Father José Arata. Count Giovanni Battista Albini of Sardinia contributed in the name of King Vittorio Emanuele I with the sum of 45,000 pesos. The construction was nevertheless delayed due to lack of funding, until in 1858 it was resumed by the association Unione e Benevolenza.
The hospital was almost finished in 1865, when the national government asked that it be set aside to treat wounded Brazilian soldiers of the Paraguayan War. In 1867 the works were resumed, only to be stopped once again by an epidemic of cholera, which prompted the government of the city of Buenos Aires to requisition its services until 1869. It was employed to treat soldiers again until the end of the war in 1870, and then in 1871 to house yellow fever patients. The hospital was finally inaugurated on December 8, 1872.
Read more about this topic: Hospital Italiano De Buenos Aires
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