Ospedali di passo sull’Appennino tosco-emiliano. Prato del Vescovo e Croce Brandegliana nelle proiezioni ecclesiastiche, economiche e militari di Pistoia (secoli XI-XIV)

The paper examines two case studies from the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines: the hospital named after St Bartholomew and St Antoninus of the Alps, also known as Prato del Vescovo, and the hospital of Croce Brandegliana. Both were hospitals located in mountain passes on two of the main roads connecting Pistoia to the Emilian territories. Founded at the end of the 11th century, the history of the hospitals is particularly interesting in the 13th and 14th centuries, when they experienced the transition from ecclesiastical to communal jurisdiction, expanded their functions , and gradually reduced the hospital community, until its eventual move to the city or its complete disappearance. In an attempt to understand the reasons for thesedevelopments , the contribution focuses on the significance of the establishment of a hospital network for the ecclesiastical settlement of the area; on the consequences of the military reorientation of hospital activities as a result of the establishment of the municipality as a political force; and finally, on the effects of climatic, factional and religious phenomena on the shaping of the welfare 'landscape'.