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ANGHIARI - Museums
The Museum of the Brotherhood of Mercy
There were many groups of men and women in Anghiari who dedicated themselves to charitable causes. These groups originated in the second half of 1300, and in particular from 1348, the year of a grave epidemic that decimated the European population ( the black plague was the protagonist of "Decomerone" written by Giovanni Boccaccio).
Accompanying these Fraternities, each one distinguishable by the color of their attire worn, were names of inspiration and at times even suggestive; The Company of Saint Mary of Mercy, The Brotherhood of Saint Mary of Borghetto, The Company of Saint Anthony, Saint Jaccopo and Saint Christopher. The Comapny of the "Holy Cross" or Corpus Domini. These charities survived until the law of the Grand Duke in 1785 surpressed a large number of them, transferring their worth to the Diocese, to who then became responsibile for the conduction of new charity groups. Nonetheless, the imposition taken by the authority for these new groups made it so that they weren't able to adhere to the people as did their past fraternities.
For this reason the Company of the Holy Spirit took life again in 1791, having been active since 1564 and recognized by high authorities like the Grand Dukes as well as the Ecclesiastic. But a short time after, the French Dominion once again surpressed the Company, reconstituting it immediately after the Napoleon period. In particular, the Company was distinguished during the tyfoid epidemic in 1817.
At this time the members of the Company added a hat to their dress, a hat similar to that of the "Mercy of Florence" (Misericordia di Firenze), and for this reason the company was also called the Brotherhood of Mercy.
The brothers of the company ran to take care of the ill in the whole community of Anghiari, carrying them on their backs and sometimes hosting them for a few days in their own home stations of the Abbey. At the beginning of the second half of 1800, to make transporting of the ill to the hospital of Sansepolcro easier, the company was given a stretcher on wheels, a type of wagon which reppresented the original draft of the modern ambulance. In 1870 the Anghiarian organization of the Hospital of Mercy began, of which was later transferred to the Convent of the Cross at the beginning of the 1900's. In the years following the Company found a new office in the ex-hospice of Brother Damaso and there learned updated techniques, allowing themselves motor vehicles for the transportation of the ill and the deceased.
In 1975 the reorganization of "Historic Archive of the Company" Archivio Storico della Compagnia and the preparation of the Museum, which in ancient years was the seat of the Abbey, began. This Archivial Museum documents the complete history of the Anghiarian Brotherhood and includes original stretchers as well as a place of worship of the "Holy Cross".
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