Nuoro, “Cesare Zonchello” Sanatorial Hospital

The hospital is located in a green area behind Colle Biscollai, chosen after a health commission had discarded Aritzo, Fonni and Macomer because they were lower in altitude than the capital of Barbaria and therefore considered less healthy than their original destination for tuberculosis.
The project is by the architect Ghino Venturi, former author of the “Costanzo Ciano” hospital in Livorno (1929-31), also built with autonomous pavilions.
The Nuoro sanatorium, designed starting in 1930, but finally partially inaugurated only in 1939, was in fact developed into autonomous pavilions comprising general services at the lowest level of the area intended for administration, management and clinics, the two blocks for patients differentiated by sex, surrounded by greenery, and, finally, the church.
The abandonment of decorative aspects in favor of essential and functional lines is evident. In this regard, the pavilions for the sick are very interesting, consisting of semi-polygonal bodies gathered in line through rounded balconies, which have the purpose of guaranteeing maximum ventilation and sun, which are particularly important in the treatment of tuberculosis patients, which were then particularly widespread.
The church, consecrated in 1938, has a curious, very tall Doric pronaos surmounted by a broken tympanum and oculi for lighting.

History of studies
A review of studies can be found in the bibliography relating to the fact sheet in the volume of the “History of Art in Sardinia” on nineteenth-century architecture (2001).

Bibliography by
F. Masala, “The Sardinian Cities in the Twenty Years”, in The Founding Cities in Sardinia, edited by A. Lino, Cagliari, Cuec, 1998, p. 193;
F. Masala, Architecture from the Unification of Italy to the end of the 20th century. Nuoro, Ilisso, 2001, sheet 92.