“Save the Hospital”: on pshychiatry’s discordant heritage in Brazil and Portugal

Abstract

Abandoned, unoccupied, underused. The hospitals approached here are discordant heritages marked by contradictions and disagreements regarding their patrimonial significance. This article deals with the making of two museums: Bispo do Rosário Museum of Contemporary Art, Rio de Janeiro, and Miguel Bombarda Museum, Lisbon, by having as main theme Arthur Bispo do Rosário and Jaime Bombarda, respectively. The purpose is to discuss the process of turning into legacy the old psychiatric hospitals, which hold these museums, and where Juliano Moreira Community and Miguel Bombarda Hospital once existed. Thus, we try to understand historical and patrimonial senses assigned to them, as well as the contrast with deletion process undergone by these institutions nowadays, finally discussing the concept of hospital heritage.