Between charity and assistance: the creation and functioning of the Hospital of Charity in Viana do Castelo (18th-19th centuries)

Abstract

The work that we propose to present results from the investigation that we carried out on the Hospital da Caridade of Viana do Castelo, city of the north of Portugal. It is an institution designed to provide assistance to the elderly who, being poor, no longer had the physical or mental ability to beg for alms and thus raise their livelihood. Its creation is closely associated with the initiative of a "Brazilian" and his concern with the condition of the inmates. Based on existing documentation on this subject, our article, in addition to references to the subject of the elderly, a subject that has received little attention from Portuguese historiography, will focus on the foundation and the first years of the Hospital of Charity, as well as its beneficiaries.