The social and humanitarian commitment of Giuseppe Verdi in the Piacenza area also included the building of the hospital at Villanova. The hospital was built thanks exclusively to the financial interest of Giuseppe Verdi. It was inaugurated in 1888 with the arrival of the first 12 patients the maximum number possible at the time. Before the hospital opened the local people had to go 40 kms from their township to the hospital in Piacenza. For Verdi the hospital was a dream come true and he himself worked on the statute and directed activities through a commission which he elected and which administered the hospital until 1901.
The hospital was built to help the poor of the municipal area and both Verdi and his wife Giuseppina Strepponi were Involved in choosing furnishings as well as hospital equipment. The Maestro was fully engaged on all fronts during this period but his involvement in the day to day running of the hospital was important to him.
His commitment to the hospital can be evinced from the care and attention he gave to drawing up the statute. The person responsible for the hospital had to ensure that the sick were looked after in the best possible way, so that they were not in the hospital more than necessary. He also had to provide assistance to people working in the hospital, check on all hospital dependents and scrupulously track how funds from the land with which Verdi endowed the hospital were used.
The Chairman of the Board of hospital administration was the Mayor of Villanova, Giacomo Persico, with whom Verdi had a relationship both personal and professional of reciprocal respect and esteem. From correspondence between the two can be seen their constant commitment to the poor people of Villanova.
Today the hospital includes a modern complex, seat of a functional rehabilitative centre amongst the best in Italy.