“The ‘La Gioconda’ open-air school in Este: an experience ahead of its time”
Duration: 60 minutes
Visit: from November 2024 it is possible to visit the exhibition dedicated to the “Gioconda” mobile open-air school in Este. The new exhibition path highlights the intersection of education, hygiene, and medicine, which unfolds within the currents of European and Paduan positivism. This movement, which exalted scientific progress as a panacea for all ills, was supported by educators, doctors, hygienists, anthropologists, and philanthropists starting in the second half of the nineteenth century.
The displayed school wall paintings—depicting human physiology, hygiene, home care, and diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria—along with books on hygiene and sanitary materials used in schools, introduce the section of the exhibition dedicated to the mobile open-air school in Este. This school, in two distinct historical periods, successfully combined medical and pedagogical-educational needs.
Languages: Italian