Ospedale Psichiatrico S. Maria Maddalena

In 1269, the Convento and Chiesa della Maddalena was founded in Aversa, twenty kilometres north of Naples. For centuries a leper colony was housed under its roof. Then in 1813 the Franciscan Order took over the complex (convent and church) and converted it to the care of the mentally ill of Naples (calling it the Casa dei folli del Regno di Napoli) under legislation promulgated by its King, Gioacchino Murat. The Ospedale Psichiatrico S. Maria Maddalena’s first superintendent was a clergyman named Count Linguiti. In 1876, inspired by the pioneering work of Cesare Lombroso in criminal anthropology, the hospital opened a forensic clinic named Manicomio Giudiziari. The clinic is still in existence today, but the hospital is not.