The hospital in Milanów in the years 1908-1931 in the light of the documents in the Sisters of Charity’s Archive in Warsaw

Abstract

The hospital in Milanów played an important role for the local community against the background of changing historical conditions of the 19th and 20th centuries, treating both patients in the hospital itself and outpatients. It was also a significant element of charity work conducted by the consecutive owners of the Milanów estate, who belonged to the Potocki, Uruski and Czetwertyński families. For most of the time the hospital employed nuns from the Order of Vincent a Paulo’s Sisters of Charity; their long work is documented by the sources kept in the Archive of their Central Home in Tamka Street.

The nuns returned to the institution in 1908 after nearly 20 years of absence caused by the decision of the Czar authorities. The return of the sisters was only possible after the ukase on tolerance was published in 1905, when the Czetwertyński Princes set out to bring the nuns back to the hospital. The documents kept in the Archive of the Central Home proves that the owners of Milanów took care of the work of the hospital that was supported by the service of 3 to 5 nuns. The hospital did not stop working during the First World War, when it fulfilled the function of a field hospital for the wounded and of a base for displaced persons. Then, in the period between the World Wars, it complemented the network of state and local government hospitals. Sisters of Charity worked in Milanów till 1931, when, on the strength of an agreement with the new owner – Wanda Żółtowska, they were withdrawn from it. The building of the hospital is still inscribed in the local landscape as a medical facility, and also as a testimony of the past time and of the people supporting this important social initiative.