Pars Romanae Urbis Topographiae & Antiquitatum

1597

de Beer Gc 1597 B

[Frankfurt: Theodori de Bry]

Tiber Island or Isola Tiberina is connected to ‘mainland’ Rome by two bridges. It has been an important crossing point over the Tiber since ancient times. Since an outbreak of the plague in 293 BC, the island has been associated with Asclepias, the Greek god of medicine and healing. At this time a temple and a hospital were built there. A church was built on the site of the Temple of Asclepias at the end of the first millennium and was rebuilt in the 17th century. It still stands today. Another hospital, built in the 16th century to minister to and isolate victims of the plague, still operates today as Ospedale San Giovanni Calibita Fatebenefratelli, a 300-bed hospital with its own surgical and emergency departments.