THE TWO WORLD WARS
Our facility is located in a strategic position to easily reach the main sites of the of the two World Wars.
It is therefore also perfect for people travelling to visit such places, such as groups, including students.
Discover the history of the Great War in Friuli! Explore the places and stories that have marked our region during this historical period, on a journey through memory and culture.
Our municipality, San Giorgio di Nogaro, was home to the most important field hospital, called the Universtità Castrense.
The Università Castrense di San Giorgio di Nogaro is the only example in Italy of medical training in a war zone: it was a military medical school for fifth- and sixth-year medical and surgical students called to the front.
It was an accelerated and intensive course of study that took place outside the traditional university setting and in close proximity to the war zone. It offered hundreds of students in their final years of study who had been called to arms the opportunity to complete their studies and then return as fully-fledged doctors to support the fighting army.
As shown in the image above, during World War I, the town of San Giorgio di Nogaro was transformed into a university campus ahead of its time, a sort of large, widespread hospital with 14 healthcare facilities and approximately 3,500 beds.
The map shows the location of the various departments of the Field Medical School within the municipal area and gives a physical representation of the exceptional military-educational experience that was the Castrense University and its integration with the town.
The experience was as bloody as it was unique from a practical and educational point of view, thanks to its proximity to the war front and the large number of cases of injuries and illnesses among the soldiers hospitalized for study, treatment, and surgery: gunshot and shrapnel wounds, facial mutilations, neurological and mental illnesses, studies of bacteriology, pathological anatomy, surgical clinic, war traumatology, and limb prostheses.
However, there are few traces and memories of this experience, and the municipality of San Giorgio di Nogaro has therefore decided to fill this knowledge gap by creating a short memorial trail and placing a number of photographic panels describing the Castrense University throughout the area.
These panels represent a journey that aims to build a link between the past and present in the sequence of places and buildings that remain silent witnesses to an exceptional event that transformed San Giorgio di Nogaro into a wartime university town.
These panels have been reproduced and summarized in a small room in the hotel, and a video has also been created (click here to see a short preview) that uses images to tell the story of the Castrense University, its importance, and its uniqueness.
Photo of the room
Illustrative example of a panel
