The Saint Elisabeth Hospital in Kolozsvár in the 17–18th Centuries (1670–1789)

Abstract

Starting with the Middle Ages institutionalized care for the poor and the appearance of hospitals became a clear sign of urban development. This was the case in medieval and early modern Kolozsvár also. When the city had lost its status as a free royal city in 1665 all the institutions administered by the local counsel underwent a series of changes. These changes did not leave unaffected the hospitals either. By the time Kolozsvár regained her lost privileges in 1712 out of the three medieval hospitals, only one was still operating, the Saint Elisabeth. Right around this time Catholicism started to regain some of its former status in Kolozsvár shattered by the reformation and it became once more the crown’s favored religion. This change in status led to the repossession and reorganization of formerly catholic institutions and properties in the city, chief among them the hospital of Saint Elisabeth.