San Michele in Bosco
Coordinates: 44°28′53″N 11°20′30″E / 44.481313°N 11.341796°E
San Michele in Bosco is a religious complex in Bologna, central Italy, including the church with the same name and the annexed Olivetan monastery. The latter was acquired in 1955 by the municipality of Bologna, to house an orthopedic center named the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute (l'Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli).
Religious center
Located on a hill not far from the city's historical center, the area housed monastic structures as early as the 4th century AD. In 1364 the Olivetans settled here by will of Pope Urban V. After the church was destroyed in 1430, they rebuilt it in different period, mostly finishing it by 1523. Gaspare Nadi was one of those who did work on it. The church has a Renaissance-style façade designed by Biagio Rossetti and his workshop, and a marble portal by Baldassarre Peruzzi. The interior has a nave with four side chapels, and a presbytery.
The convent was finished in the late 16th century. It has an octagonal cloister, with frescoes by the Carracci school.
Orthopedic institute
The large complex was expropriated during the Napoleonic era and later used as a "house of strength" for those sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute was established using a bequest left by the orthopedic surgeon Francesco Rizzoli in 1880. With this hospital Rizzoli wanted to achieve both the advancement of science and the relief of suffering humanity.[1] The institute was inaugurated by the King Umberto I of Italy on 28 June 1896 as the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute, and for in the next century was one of the best orthopedic hospitals in the world.[2]
Notes and references
Citations
- ↑ Paltrinieri 2006, p. 41.
- ↑ Bynum & Bynum 2007, p. 46.
Sources
- Bynum, W.F; Bynum, Helen (2007). Dictionary of medical biography. 4 (M-R). Westport, Connecticut - London: Greenwood Press.
- Il Monastero di San Michele in Bosco e l'Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli. Bologna: Pendragon. 2006.
- Paltrinieri, A. (2006). Il Monastero di San Michele in Bosco e l'Istituto ortopedico Rizzoli. Edizioni Pendragon. ISBN 978-88-8342-517-2. Retrieved 2013-01-17.