Le Tranquille_ The Tranquil Ones

I enter the atrium of Fucecchio hospital. The oldest part of the building overlooking Via Castruccio. My gaze wanders up the stairs to the lodgings where once lived the tranquille, the tranquil ones: that's how the inmates of the "Harmless Demented Women" ward were called. I lift my eyes. In the present silence I almost hear their steps, swift or slow. I can see their eyes staring down at me framed by the geometrical patterns in the railings. Or through cracks in the walls and gated windows. Their hair cut short in a square bob. A smile. A clapping of hands as if of sudden joy. They are all images from a film which is being constructed in my mind's eye through the fragments of memories given by those who still remember them: "I used to see them through the wall when I went to sell chickens at the market. They wore a grey overall with pockets down the front. They laughed and sang, and placed coloured ribbons in their hair!" – "As a child, I was afraid to walk under those windows. I heard their voices and screams. They sounded like cries of terror."- "There were two little twin girls. They were so young. They called my name and clapped their hands." - "There was one who always wanted lipstick and another who jealously guarded a box full of old postcards which she read over and over again all day." "Every now and then they argued and fought. But Caleo, the ward's male nurse kept watch. He was always there.Towering over them. Huge. A big man."

In 1927, the psychiatric unit of Fucecchio hospital was opened, commonly called the mad-house. It was a detached section of San Salvi mental hopsital in Florence. The unit held up to 130 inmates, all women, whom the local people called the tranquil ones. The patients were locked up. They mostly lived in confinement in large rooms. Their hour of air was taken in a garden terrace fenced up by a very tall metal mesh. The unit was eventually closed on 12th October 1967.