Ouch, it hurts!

In 1518, the first hospital in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was founded by Martin of Duszniki, a Canon of the nearby Vilnius Cathedral. He called it St. Job and Mary Magdalene (later, the ‘Saint’ was added). For several years, the hospital was the only institution for the poor in the city; the wooden building housed ten sick beds, a pharmacy, a kitchen, a staff room, and a chapel.

The material situation of St. Mary Magdalene Hospital was poor, especially in the 18th century. One of the sources of income was the begging of the inmates themselves. Catholic hospices were allowed to engage in this activity, while Orthodox hospices strictly forbade their inmates to beg.   

The Mary Magdalene Hospitaller Hospital continued to operate intermittently (due to fires and other calamities) until 1799, when its foundation was transferred to the Vilnius General Hospitaller Hospital and its buildings were sold.

The Hospital of the Brotherhood of Saint Roch was built in Vilnius around 1708-1709 near the Castle Gate. In the 1750s, the hospital grew considerably, treating dozens of men and women, and by the middle of the century, it was already undoubtedly the largest in the city. Later on, its main functions became clearer: it primarily treated people with venereal diseases and took care of women in labour. The Hospital also cared for orphaned children, and the monks used their own funds to support the nursing mothers who took care of the children.

After almost nine decades, both the foundation and the patients were transferred to the Vilnius General Hospital, which opened in the summer of 1799. A few decades later, the Church of St. Roch, the hospital, and the monastery were all demolished.

In 1781, this building housed the Faculty of Medicine of Vilnius University, the oldest medical school in Lithuania. It housed classrooms for medicine and natural sciences, a chemistry laboratory, an anatomy room and a prosectorium (where already dissected (prosected) human bodies were used for learning anatomy). 

In the courtyard, the famous French botanist and physician Jean-Emmanuel Gillibert established the first botanical garden in Vilnius and, indeed, in the whole of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. 

At the beginning of the 19th century, the building was home to the medical professor Jaques Briôtet, the physician August Louis Bécu, the physician Jędrzej Śniadecki, the anatomist Johann A. Lóbenvein, and others. 

In 1832, the faculty was transformed into the Academy of Medicine and Surgery. Ten years later (1842), the Academy of Medicine and Surgery was abolished, and the building was given to the Governor General’s Office.

In the second half of the 17th century, the Jesuits acquired a plot of land, constructed a building and set up a pharmacy there. The pharmacy sold medicinal plants, healing ointments and snuff. It was particularly famous for selling spirits, ‘sweet’ vodka and liqueurs. The pharmacy earned a considerable income from this trade. According to the inventory of 1773, the ground floor of the building contained a pharmacy hall, a laboratory, chemists’ and alembics’ booths for alchemic distilling, and a small flat for the pharmacist. On the second floor, there were five rooms for the storage and preservation of medicinal substances. There was a large library with more than 400 books attached to the pharmacy.

From 1932 until the end of the Second World War, this building was the private pharmacy of Vladas Narbutas.

The current University Pharmacy has been located across the street at Universiteto g. 2 since 1990.

In 1800, the Vilnius pharmacist Jerzy Gutt (Jurgis Gutas) purchased the building and set up a pharmacy here, which operated from 1800 to 1834. In 1805, he and his colleagues founded the Vilnius Medical Society, and from 1806 to 1817, he served as the Society’s treasurer. He was also a member of the editorial board of the first publication in Lithuania for his profession – ‘Vilnius Pharmacists’ Notes’ was published in Polish.   

Unfortunately, Gutt’s fate was rather tragic. His neighbour, Ludwik Wittgenstein, had ordered poison from Jerzy in order to seize the assets of his wealthy wife, Stefania Radziwiłł (of course, he bought the poison under the guise of less sinister purposes). However, word of the woman’s death reached the pharmacist, and he had intended to inform the authorities about the order for the poison but was unable to do so as he had already been murdered and was found dead in his flat.

In 1834, George’s son Ferdinand Gutt, also a physician, handed over his father’s pharmacy to Soženievskis, another pharmacist.

The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary was badly damaged during the battles between the rebels and the Russian army in 1794. After this destruction, no services were held in the Cathedral, and in 1808 the abandoned building was handed over to the University. In 1810, the church was adapted to the anatomical facilities of the University, according to a design by the architect M. Schulz. The exterior of the building was given classical forms, and it lost the characteristic features of an Orthodox church. The interior space was divided into two floors and divided by partitions. Anatomy and veterinary amphitheatres, a library, laboratories, and classrooms were added. Of all the rooms, the anatomy amphitheatre was the most interesting to the public. It was a kind of museum known at the time as the Anatomy Theatre.

After the 1863 Uprising, many churches were repaired, built and rebuilt. Between 1865 and 1868, the Cathedral of the Most Holy Mother of God was reconstructed according to the design of Nikolay Chagin. 

The Savičiaus Hospital was founded in 1744 by Bishop Bogusław Gosiewski of Smolensk, who founded the hospital in his former palace on Savičiaus Street (now Bokšto g. 6). A year later, the first Sisters of Mercy, also known as the Šaričiai (from ‘Charity’), arrived in Vilnius. Although the main function of the hospital was healing the sick, children and people with disabilities were also cared for here.

In his memoirs, Frank mentions that in 1805, the hospital had poor sanitary conditions (inadequate ventilation and it was filthy), a shortage of beds, and a general state of disorder. Later, the situation seems to have changed, as Tsar Alexander I, who visited the hospital in 1812, spoke favourably of the hospital.

Within a few decades, the hospital became the largest in the city and remained open for more than 100 years until the 1870s.

The building where the French Institute is now located is often referred to as ‘Frank’s House’ in Lithuania. Joseph Frank was a physician who started his career in Vienna; he came to Vilnius in 1804 with his father, Johann Peter Frank (also a famous physician and professor) and his wife, Christine Gerardi Frank. Joseph and Christine lived in this house for 18 years (1805-1823).

Frank was highly educated: he knew Latin, English, French, German, and Italian. When he arrived in Vilnius, he started to learn Polish in order to better understand the patients. He not only taught at Vilnius University but was also an excellent medical practitioner. In Vilnius, there were rumours that he could diagnose illness even by smell. 

Frank was a professor in Vilnius for 18 years and founded the Institute of Maternity, as well as the Institute of Vaccination; he also established a dispensary and was involved in charity work. The Vilnius Medical Society was founded in this building on his initiative on 12 December 1805. It was the first organisation of doctors, surgeons, and pharmacists in Eastern Europe dedicated to the development of their skills, experience, sharing discoveries, disseminating scientific knowledge, exchanging information, and cooperation.

In 1804, the former Radziwiłł Palace was acquired by Vilnius University. In 1805, the University Clinics were opened here, headed by Professor Joseph Frank. Under his care, the clinics were continuously renovated, and a pathology room, surgical clinic and maternity institute for poor mothers were built. 

In 1812, the clinic building was converted into a French military hospital and badly damaged.

Despite its convenient location and the considerable investment of the University, the building was not suitable as a clinic. Most of the rooms were cramped, with south-facing windows onto the ward, which made the heat oppressive for the patients. Moreover, they had nowhere to walk or pray. In 1831, the patients were transferred to the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy and other hospitals in Vilnius.

After World War II, the buildings in this courtyard housed the Institute of Hygiene; on its initiative, in 1983, a monument was erected to Joseph Frank, the founder of the Institute of Vaccination, to mark the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Institute. The granite monument was designed by the sculptor Eimantas Stankevičius.

The doctor of medicine came to Vilnius with his father, who was also a physician. Frank moved from Vienna to Vilnius and became a professor, undertaking medical and charitable projects in Vilnius that were unprecedented at the time: he founded the Smallpox Vaccination Institute (1808) and Europe’s first maternity institute providing support to underprivileged mothers. Together with his wife, the renowned opera soloist Christina Gerardi Frank, he organised charitable concerts.

Zemach Shabad was born in 1864 in Vilnius. After graduating in medicine from Moscow University, he returned to his hometown. He was a well-known and respected physician there, who was also known for treating children and the poor for free. He was also involved in Jewish educational, cultural, and charitable organisations, was one of the founders of the YIVO (Jewish Institute of Science), a leader of the Jewish community, a member of the city council, and a Polish senator. 

On the day of his death, not only Jewish shops and organisations but also banks were closed, and thousands of people lined the route for the revered doctor’s final journey to the cemetery. 

Zemach Shabad is believed to be the man who inspired the character Dr Aybolit (from Russian) or Daktaras Aiskauda (from “Ai, skauda!” in Lithuanian), the hero of the fairy tale by the writer Korney Chukovsky. The character was based on Shabad; the character’s name derives from a play on words from “Ouch, it hurts!” and has also been translated into English as ‘Doctor Concocter’ or ‘Doctor Ouch’.

The sculpture, by the famous sculptor Romualdas Quintas, was erected in 2007 and depicts the scene of a sick girl coming to the doctor; he fed her and gave her milk. The next day, the girl brought a cat. The day after that, a whole group of children stood at the doctor’s door.

In 1805, the Jewish Sanitary Brotherhood bought some old buildings on the city side of the former defensive wall and set up a hospital there. In 1819, the hospital was expanded, and the buildings were repaired. A few years later, Governor-General Alexander Rimsky-Korsakov wrote: “The city’s Jewish hospital is in such excellent condition that you could hardly find a better one in any other city.” After a fire in 1865, the hospital buildings were again reconstructed, and the premises were redesigned. The second floor had spacious wards, and a pharmacy was located on the ground floor. In 1891, the adjacent house (now Pylimo g. 42) was bought, and a psychiatric ward was set up there. The Jewish Hospital complex was a huge complex consisting of departments of internal diseases, surgery, gynaecology, ophthalmology, as well as psychiatry wards. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 15 doctors working there.

In 1941, the hospital was incorporated into the territory of the Great Vilnius Ghetto. The paediatrician Roza Shabad-Gawronska (daughter of the doctor Isidor, brother of Zemach Shabad, together with other doctors, started to organise the healthcare system in the early days of the ghetto. A health department was set up, and an orphanage for the youngest ghetto inmates was established. This is where the doctor spent most of her time. When the liquidation of the ghetto was imminent, although a shelter was found for the Shabad family, Roza did not leave her young patients behind. According to the testimony of the surviving ghetto prisoners, she perished with the orphans in Paneriai in 1943.

Today, only the name of the street reminds us of the Jewish hospital that once operated here.