The fight against epidemics: the birth of a hospital – Hospital, Kuks

Fact of the Czech figure „Pandemics in Czech lands”

Part of the „Pandemics” topic

The hospital in Kuks is widely regarded as the most esteemed medical facility in the territory of present-day Czechia. Hospitals, public institutions providing health care, are a relatively recent phenomenon. Systematic medical care did not exist before the Age of Enlightenment, and for a long time the only effective measure during epidemics were isolation and quick burial of the dead. Nevertheless, the network of city, religious and upper-class infirmaries can be considered as the forerunners of hospitals. These were originally established as shelters for pilgrims and served for social security in old age and as a form of care of the poor, but they also provided basic health care.

The hospital in Kuks was established by Count Franz Anton von Spork in the early 18. century and housed in a stunning Baroque building with fascinating sculptural decoration by the Bohemian sculptor Matthias Bernhard Braun. It had a permanent staff of retired military orderly who were obliged to pray for the soul of their founder in return for the care provided. It was therefore far from being a hospital, even though the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, who belonged to orders specialising in medical care, worked there.

The prevention of epidemics and the provision of care for the poor and sick were also part of the efforts of the absolutist state, culminating in the issue of the Health Regulations of 1753 and the establishment of general provincial hospitals, maternity hospitals and asylums under the Emperor Josef II. With the birth of the hospital network, the era of infirmaries came to an end. The Enlightenment state abolished most of them and used their assets to provide for new institutions; the Hospital of Kuks was one of the few that survived into the 20th century.