Work set to begin on €100 million San Giacomo project in 2026.

Rome's long-closed San Giacomo hospital in the city centre is to reopen as a health facility for elderly patients, the Lazio governor Francesco Rocca said on Wednesday.

“In a few days the project will go out to tender" - Rocca told news agency Adnkronos - "It will be a facility for the elderly, a key piece of Roman healthcare history that will be made available to the city again.”

Located between Via del Corso and Via di Ripetta, the historic San Giacomo degli Incurabili closed its doors in 2008, after 680 years of continuous activity.

Its closure meant that the nearest hospitals to Rome's historic centre were Santo Spirito, located on the Lungotevere near the Vatican, and Tiber Island's Fatebenefratelli, which has recently been acquired by the Policlinico Gemelli Foundation.

Rocca, speaking at the inauguration of the new emergency department at the Gemelli Isola hospital, said that work is set to begin next year on the €100 million San Giacomo project.

The Lazio governor said the pressure on emergency rooms in Rome is aggravated by the lack of adequate facilities for elderly patients, telling reporters: “Having more than 150 beds dedicated to them represents a significant response”.

Rocca said he has asked Rome's mayor Roberto Gualtieri to "prepare a parking plan" given that San Giacomo is located in an area of Rome that has "changed drastically" since its closure 17 years ago.

"With the reopening there will be an influx of people and staff", Rocca said, noting that Santo Spirito also has a "parking problem".

A brief history of San Giacomo Hospital

Dating back to the mid-14th century, the San Giacomo hospital complex was rebuilt in the second half of the 16th century thanks to major donations from Cardinal Antonio Maria Salviati and other senior church officials.

In addition to large sums of money, the donations comprised an extensive property fund aimed at assuring future hospital costs would always be covered.

In his role as benefactor, Cardinal Salviati donated the San Giacomo building to the city of Rome in 1593 under the strict condition that it would retain its function as a hospital.

The cardinal's stipulation was copper-fastened in the form of a motu proprio issued by Pope Paul V in 1610, eight years after Salviati's death.

However in 2008 the Lazio region ordered the hospital's closure, sparking a protracted legal battle by the cardinal's descendant, Oliva Salviati, who fought the decision in the courts.

In 2021 the Consiglio di Stato or Council of State, a legal-administrative consultative body that ensures the legality of public administration in Italy, ruled that the closure of San Giacomo was "illegitimate".

Two years later the Supreme Court of Cassation definitively confirmed the 2021 ruling.

A press conference is due to take place in the coming days to provide details of the new facility. We will update this article accordingly.

Photo credit: Massimo Todaro / Shutterstock.com.