PARCO BASAGLIA

We find ourselves immersed in a historic site linked to the figure of Franco Basaglia and his revolution in psychiatry.

The area initially housed a mental asylum, built in 1911 under the Austro-Hungarian Empire and later transformed into the Provincial Psychiatric Hospital in 1933. Today, it houses numerous social and health services in renovated buildings.

Along the paths connecting the various buildings, damaged during the First World War and rebuilt in the 1930s, you can admire various tree and shrub varieties: holm oaks, horse chestnuts, and various conifer species.

The "mad" in straitjackets were tied to the trees, some of which still stand today. This was the starting point for the reforms initiated by Franco Basaglia, who was present in Gorizia from 1961 to 1970, which led to the closure of the mental asylums. The park is now a place of remembrance, where traces of the former psychiatric hospital can still be seen, but also a place of rebirth, with ongoing redevelopment projects. In a designated area of the park, a permanent urban meadow is maintained, with minimal mowing, given the valuable presence of several species of wild orchids.