The history of Policlinico Umberto I

Policlinico Umberto I was founded in Rome in the second half of the nineteenth century, in response to the need to provide the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy with a university hospital capable of combining medical training, scientific research, and patient care within a single organic structure. The main promoter of the project was Guido Baccelli, a clinician at Sapienza and Minister of Public Education, who dedicated decades to its realization, establishing a commission of illustrious clinicians and obtaining the first state funding in 1881.

The first stone was laid on January 19, 1888, by King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy, from whom the hospital took the name it still bears today. The actual construction work, based on the design by architects Giulio Podesti and Filippo Laccetti, lasted for over a decade. The solemn inauguration ceremony was held at the Capitol on January 18, 1903, in the presence of King Vittorio Emanuele III; the official inauguration of the entire complex, on the occasion of Baccelli's academic jubilee, took place in April 1906.

Since its inception, the Policlinico stood out as an unsurpassed prototype of a pavilion-style hospital, a protagonist of the shift in healthcare architecture that swept across Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. The structure, with its buildings distributed around a central core, still preserves that historical legibility and design coherence that have made it a reference model.

Over the decades, the Policlinico has established itself as a reference facility for the whole of Central Italy, closely integrated with the Sapienza Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. Today it has 1,235 beds organized into 11 Integrated Healthcare Departments, with specialties covering almost all medical and surgical disciplines. On the emergency front, 5 Emergency Departments are active, 3 of which are internal and 2 external, all operating 24 hours a day, testifying to a vocation for continuous assistance that spans the entire history of the institution.