About
A dilapidated psychiatric facility near Milan where Napoleon once lived and electroconvulsive therapy was developed.
Originally built as a private residence called Villa Pusterla, the estate changed hands a few times in the 17th and 18th centuries. It became colloquially known as Villa Napoleone when Bonaparte himself took up residence here during his Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars. Eventually abandoned, the municipality of Milan bought the property and in 1879, the Ospedale Psichiatrico Giuseppe Antonini opened as the provincial psychiatric hospital of Milan. The Mombello Psychiatric Hospital, also known as the “Giuseppe Antonini of Limbiate Psychiatric Hospital”, is a psychiatric hospital whose intriguing past includes being the temporary home of Napoleon Bonaparte, the location of early experiments in electroconvulsive therapy, and the resting place of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s illegitimate son.
