L'edilizia dei manicomi, conoscenza e recupero: il caso del Manicomio Provinciale a L'Aquila

On the national territory there are many buildings that in past were destined to the care of the mental patients. In 1978 the Basaglia law imposed the closing of the insane asylums promoting notable transformations in the psychiatric treatments. By consequence, these buildings have become a vast building patrimony, often abandoned, that offers enormous possibilities of transformation and refurbishment through actions aimed to their rehabilitation. Such buildings, originally built in the distant but neighboring zones to the inhabited centers, result today englobed in the urban areas and they represent, therefore, interesting nucleuses potentially proper to receive new functions. At present the Mental Hospital Santa Maria di Collemaggio, realized in L'Aquila from 1904 on an area near the Basilica of Collemaggio, appears in a state of deep decline . Nevertheless, it represents for the citizens a loaded place of memories and values. Without any doubt, the possible interventions aiming to the retraining of the complex need to start from the careful knowledge of the native buildings in their different features, typological spatial, constructive and architectural. It looks hence essential the study of history buildings of the insane asylum in its different sections as a whole.