Prédio da Santa Casa da Misericórdia, Colonial medical building in Feira de Santana, Brazil.
The Prédio da Santa Casa da Misericórdia is a two-story building of 495 square metres facing Praça da Piedade on Rua da Misericórdia. It has a rectangular plan, nine street-facing windows with high pointed arches and pilasters between them, and Gothic Revival elements rare in Bahia. Its entrance is on the side, not the street, and the building is now abandoned in an advanced state of ruin.
Colonel João Pedreira built the mansion in the 1850s to host Emperor Dom Pedro II, who did not stay there on his 1859 tour but donated 2:000$000 for a Santa Casa hospital. The Irmandade bought the house in 1879, took possession in 1880 and inaugurated it as its headquarters in 1884. Hospital Dom Pedro Alcântara, marked by a plaque dated 1865, moved out in 1950; the 1st Military Police Battalion occupied the building from 1947 to 1984.
The brotherhood that ran the Santa Casa admitted its members from Feira de Santana's local elite, and the parish priest sat on its board. Nuns and women of lay religious orders staffed the hospital beds of the Hospital Dom Pedro Alcântara. The brotherhood also founded the Piedade Cemetery on land given by Felipe Pedreira de Cerqueira, just south of the hospital, and still manages it.
The building faces Praça da Piedade on Rua da Misericórdia, which links the plaza to the St. Ann Cathedral. It is abandoned and in an advanced state of ruin, so it may not be visited; the exterior can be seen from the street and the square.
The building served several different purposes during its lifetime, from a residence to a hospital to a childcare facility. These constant changes show how a growing city's needs shifted over time.
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