It often happened to slaves serving wealthy families.įurthermore, there was no shortage of abandoned disabled children. Or else, these girls did not want to take care of these babies because that child was the “fruit of sin”, meaning the result of an extramarital affair or a rape.
Usually, those mothers who left their babies there were poor or sick young women who could not look after their children. It is a safe place among nunneries and orphanages where mothers could bring their babies, usually newborns, anonymously to entrust to their care.
#Abandoned archive archive#
One of the most touching memories stored in the archive is the Ruota degli Esposti (baby hatch). (…) In those days, the administration of local hospitals still managed hospices, which had shared finances for a long time".
(…) Under French rule, the administration of orphans was up to the Commissions of Hospices, who had to manage both hospices and hospitals. So, in the cities of Chiavari and Albenga, two more institutes were founded. PP of October 15th) that in each province should be a Foundling Children Hospice. the Restoration these institutes multiplied (…) because King Charles Felice determined in 1822 (RR. But, when Liguria came under the government of French, the region was obliged to open two additional institutes in the two principal cities on the two sides of Genoa, one in Savona and the other one in La Spezia. Till the start of the XIX° century in Liguria, it was the only Institution present, so it hosted children from both sides of the region. These Commissions originated during the Republic of Genoa, kept through the French and the Sabaudian reigns.įor instance, in the prologue of the Organic Statute for the Hospice of the abandoned children of Genoa of 1873, the name of Ippai at birth, the author mentions these Foundling Children Hospices controlled by the Hospital of Pammatone, the most important nursing institution of Genoa: “On March 26th, 1496, Pope Alexander VI wrote an edict authorizing the collection of alms for the Hospital of Pammatone, who already managed the Institution that hosted and curated both illegitimate and legitimate children abandoned by their parents and who kept managing that service for years. Structures called Ospizi degli Esposti (Foundling Children Hospices), managed by specific Commissions housed these orphans. From the XV° century till 1873, when the government founded the Ippai, the Pammatone Hospital and the Civil Hospitals of Genoa housed abandoned children.
The Archivio degli Esposti (Archive of Foundling Children) of the former Ippai, now the property of the Metropolitan City of Genoa, located in Via Maggio in the neighbourhood of Quarto, hosts all related documents from 1806. There are miscellaneous documents and personal belongings that mothers gave to their children as an “identifying mark” to facilitate a possible later reunion. This archive stores many sensitive documents collecting the personal information of those children, so people must observe rules and regulations about privacy. This institution, directed by the former Province, hosted local orphanages from 1873 till the 1970s-80s, since 1978 when the process of discontinuation started till completed, a decade later. The Metropolitan City of Genoa originates directly from the former Province and manages the historical archive of the former Ippai, Istituto Provinciale per la Protezione e Assistenza dell’Infanzia, (Provincial Institute for the Protection and Assistance of Infantry).
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