Medical Care in Ancient Zagreb

45(6):669-670,2004 COVER PAGE Medical Care in Ancient Zagreb Zagreb is the capital of the Republic of Croatia, cate that the order probably maintained a school. In- the heart of all Croats wherever they may be, replete timidated by the Turkish expansion at the end of the with monuments and artifacts that attest to its long 15th century, the Dominicans slowly abandoned and intriguing history. As bishops’ sees were always their unprotected abode and moved into the fortified established alongside major population centers, the nearby “free and royal town Gradec of Zagreb.” The town must have existed even before 1094 A.D., when abandoned property was demolished between 1512 King Ladislaus established the diocese of Zagreb. Ar- and 1520 when Thomas Bakaè, Archbishop of Ester- cheological evidence shows that the area has been gon and Rector of the Diocese of Zagreb, protected settled from the older Iron Age (7th century B.C.) the cathedral by an imposing fortress containing six through Roman period and early Christian era to mo- circular and two square towers in early Renaissance dernity (1). style (4). In the Middle Ages, Zagreb occupied two adja- After the Tatars retreated, Gradec did not fall be- cent hills separated by a stream. The bishop and the hind Kaptol in building – the three-nave Romanesque canons occupied the eastern hill; hence its current St. Mark’s parochial Church was built on the central name of Kaptol (Capitol, the house of canons). Mer- St. Mark’s square at about the same time as the St. Ste- chants and artisans dwelled on the western hill. King phen’s Chapel on Kaptol. Towards the end of the 14th Bela IV gave them a special status by his Golden Bull; century, St. Mark’s church was expanded by a long this 1242 document decreed the town “free and royal Gothic sanctuary, two apses to the side naves and by … on Zagreb’s hill of Gradec” (2). The Golden Bull an imposing Gothic portal decorated by stone statues granted numerous privileges, but listed also the citi- of saints. Already in the 13th century, the city hall and zens’ responsibilities, including the most important the priest’s quarters were built on the same square. one – to protect the town with ramparts and towers, Gradec and Kaptol held regular fairs. The “Mar- which largely still exist today (see Cover Page). The kian” (after St. Mark’s Church) fair at Gradec and the stream between the hills did not only separate the two “Royal” (after the cathedral of St. Stephen the King) settlements. It powered mills and provided water for a fair at Kaptol attracted merchants and people of all public bath. There barbers cut hair, shaved and also trades from nearby and afar. As a result, several Vene- practiced contemporary medicine: letting blood, tian families settled in Zagreb in the 13th century (the extracting teeth, and treating wounds. Mletaèka-Venetian-Street still marks the site). There In 1242, belligerent equestrian Tatar hordes dev- were also merchants from Florence. Jakmo apote- astated Hungary and Croatia. Before being defeated at karius (pharmacist) is mentioned in documents be- the shores of the Adriatic, they damaged Zagreb’s Ca- tween 1355 and 1359, indicated that the tradition of thedral and its surroundings (3). As a consequence, a pharmacy goes back to six-hundred years. Apothe- building boom followed and many important edifices carius Jalimello and Dyonisius apothecaries (men- were erected. In the middle of the 13th century, the tioned in 1397) were Italians as well (5). It is notewor- Romanesque-Gothic St. Stephen’s Chapel was added thy that Nicolo Alighieri, the great-grandson of Dante to the bishop’s quarters. Bishop Timothy (1263-1287) Alighieri, the author of the Divine Comedy, lived in rebuilt the cathedral and turned it into a majestic the “free and royal town.” Nicolo, also a pharmacist, structure. It acquired a Gothic sanctuary, two lateral married in Zagreb. A preserved letter of his father, apses and a sacristy, all decorated with frescoes. The Dante’s grandson Bernardo, mailed to Nicolo to fresco in the sacristy displays St. Timothy flanked by Zagreb on December 5, 1399, reveals the reasons of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic. The two latter Nicolo’s moving out of his native Verona: his parents saints indicate the locally present orders, the Francis- were poor and Nicolo could not make a living at cans and the Dominicans. Indeed, the Franciscans home (6). Apparently, Zagreb prospered at the time. had already lived on Kaptol in the first half of the 13th A plaque marks the site of Nicolo’s pharmacy at century. Around the middle of that century they today’s Upper Town, the ancient Gradec. erected the monumental single-nave Gothic church Nonetheless, Zagreb too had its share of the poor with an elongated sanctuary. The Dominicans placed and the sick who could not provide for themselves. their monastery together with its St. Nicholas’ Church They were placed into the municipal “hospital” of St. beneath Kaptol in Vlaska Street. The titles of particular Mary. Rector hospitalis was in charge of this institu- Dominicans (sacrae theologiae lector, doctor) indi- tion that combined the function of a shelter for the www.cmj.hr 669 Cover Page: Medical Care in Ancient Zagreb Croat Med J 2004;45:669-670 poor with that of a hospital (7). As stipulated by the the beginning of the era of the building of numerous Golden Bull of 1242, the institution was supported by baroque and rococo palaces, of a grandiose bishop’s “one third of the estate of citizens who died without palace and canons’ residences (curiae), of the opulent an heir and without a will.” The same document de- Jesuit church of St. Catherine, etc. The first high manded that whoever “inflicts a wound with a sword, school was established in 1607, and the university in knife, arrow, or other similar weapon” was obliged to 1662 (12). The number of “hospitals” increased in pay the physician’s fees. The number of physicians- time (the last was built in 1746 at the very beginning surgeons (chyrurgi) increased to the point that at the of Vlaska Street), but in 1794 they were consolidated end of the 15th century they formed a “surgical guild” into the new and modern hospital “on Harmica” (the (8). very beginning of Ilica Street). At the nearby Kaptol, the first mention of a train- In the middle of the 19th century, old neighbor- ed physician, that of canon Petrus physicus, dates hoods, suburbs, and adjacent villages were consoli- back to 1253. In subsequent years, other canons stud- dated into the municipality of Zagreb. The first zoning ied medicine in Salerno and Bologna. Possibly they ordinance helped shape Zagreb into a medium-sized trained in Montpellier in France too (as indicated by Central European city. Since then, it has continued the collection of 32 medical textbooks and other developing its role as the center of Croatian public medical texts from Montpellier dating from the 14th life, arts, science, and medicine. and 15th centuries and preserved in the library of the Archdiocese of Zagreb)(9). It is noted that Bishop Ja- cobus was also a physician in the 14th century (10). Lelja Dobroniæ The Bishop of Zagreb owned the Laska ves (Vicus Latinorum, Latin Village), today Vlaska Street, at the References base of Kaptol. Kaptol’s hospitals were located there, run by the parish priests and supported by individu- 1 Rendiæ-Mioèeviæ A. editor. Zagreb before Zagreb [in als. For example, Bishop Oswald bequeathed fifty fo- Croatian]. Zagreb: Muzej grada Zagreba; 1994. rints “to the hospital of St. Anthony in Laska ves” in 2 Dobroniæ L. Free and royal town of Zagreb [in Cro- 1499. The old St. Anthony’s parochial Church (ap- atian]. Zagreb (Croatia): Školska knjiga; 1992. proximately at the site of the existing chapel of St. 3 Dobroniæ L. Episcopal and capitular Zagreb [in Cro- Martin) perished in 1529 in the civil war fought for the atian]. Zagreb (Croatia): Školska knjiga; 1991. royal throne between Ferdinand of Habsburg and 4 Dobroniæ L. Zagrebian Episcopal fortification. Zagreb John of Zapolya. To isolate lepers, there was “St. Pe- (Croatia): Školska knjiga; 1991. ter’s hospital for poor lepers in the suburb of Zagreb” 5 Dobroniæ L. Italians in Zagreb. In: Dobroniæ L, editor. at the very end of Laska Street settlement or just out- Renaissance in Zagreb [in Croatian]. Zagreb: Institut za side it. At that time, St. Peter’s church in present povijest umjetnosti; 1994. p. 7-22. Vlaska Street was probably just a hospital chapel 6 Èale F. Alighieri in Zagreb in 14th century. In: Èale F, which was to be elevated to a parochial church only editor. Dante and the Slavic world [in Croatian and Ital- later, when St. Anthony’s parish and hospital were ian]. Zagreb: Jugoslavenska akademija znanosti i umjet- discontinued. St. Peter’s leprosarium was the only nosti; 1984. p. 71-80. such institution in proximity of town. The other asy- 7 Barle J. Medical care in ancient Zagreb [in Croatian]. lum for lepers was situated on the other, southern Zagreb (Croatia): Dionièka tiskara; 1902. bank of the Sava. It could be accessed by transitus 8 Šercer M. Old Zagrabian crafts [in Croatian]. Zagreb leprosorum, the “road of the lepers” (mentioned in (Croatia): Povijesni muzej Hrvatske; 1991. p.35, 94. 1347). It was near the village of Oborovo, on the 9 Thaller L. Middle-aged medical manuscripts of the property of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, also Zagrebian cathedral. In: Kniewald D, editor. Cultural known as the Hospitalers (11).

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