A social and health-care benchmark

The project to transform Barcelona’s old military hospital into a site that would improve the provision of public services and become a social and health-care benchmark began in 1999. To implement it, the Catalan Ministry of Health set up a public company called Parc Sanitari Pere Virgili. Since then, the company has been combining forces to optimise the use of the 53,064 square metres the site has at its disposal, a reserve of physical resources for implementing public policies.

There are health-care organisations in the various buildings, such as the Institute for Image Diagnostics (IDI) and the Catalan Asperger’s Syndrome Association.

The name Pere Virgili

Pere Virgili was a doctor and scientist who was born in Vilallonga del Camp in 1699. He was the Surgeon-Major of the Army and the Navy, and played a decisive role in Spanish surgery at the time. Regarded as an innovator and the creator of surgery studies on the Iberian Peninsula, he founded the Cádiz and Barcelona colleges of surgery in 1748 and 1768 respectively.