City Hospices

Categories / Social Life/Charity
CITY HOSPICES, charitable establishments for accommodating the disabled, beggary and aged. They were opened at the Decree of Empress Catherine II issued on 8 August 1781 in a building bought from the Boarding School of Education and located not far from the Smolny Convent (Palmenbakhskaya Street, today 4 Smolnogo Street). In the late 18th century the hospices provided care for 900 people, in 1881 for 2,400 people, in the early 20th century - for about 3,000 people. In 1782-84 a new building was constructed for the city hospices (extended in 1820, architect E.V. Tsygorev; in 1865-66 the third floor was overbuilt, architect A.H. Pehl; in 1905, the fourth floor was added, architect A.F. Krasovsky). In 1781 the Orthodox Church of SS. Constantine and Elena was established in the city hospices, in 1798 a Lutheran Chapel was added (in 1866 transformed into a church), and in 1845 — a Catholic Church. In 1786 the Orphans Department and Konstantinovsky Public School were established, in 1859 the department for the terminally ill was opened with beds for 200 patients; in 1867 it was made an orphanage. The city hospices were financed from the treasury and on private donations. They were under the charge of the board of trustees, and from 1884, city public administration. After October 1917 the city hospices were abolished. Today the building houses a Psychoneurological Boarding School.

Reference: Краткий очерк С.-Петербургских градских богаделен за сто лет их существования, 1781-1881. СПб., 1881.

M. V. Shkarovsky. Catherine II, Empress
Krasovsky Alexander Fedorovich
Pehl Alexander Hristoforovich
Tsygorov E.V.
Smolnogo St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 4
Краткий очерк С.-Петербургских градских богаделен за сто лет их существования, 1781-1881. СПб., 1881 Boarding House of Education
1781