12 things to know about the “Hospital of the Popes”, where Francis is treated

MISE & Agrave; DAY

Pope Francis is hospitalized this week for a respiratory infection. He is being treated at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome.

This institution is also known as the “Hospital of the Popes” in the Italian capital.

The hospital was even nicknamed “Vatican Three” by John Paul II.

Gemelli Hospital is the largest hospital in Rome.

More than 5,000 people work there, according to its website.

The full name of the hospital is “Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic Foundation”.

It is part of the University of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic university founded in 1921 in Milan and considered the largest Catholic university in Europe with several seats in Italy.

John Paul II had been treated there nine times.

His repeated and prolonged stays at the Gemelli had led the Vatican to organize a mini-residence there.

Security obliges, the pope's apartment is on the tenth and last floor and is accessed by a long corridor watched over by the Italian police and the Vatican Gendarmerie.

According to Italian media, this small apartment, painted white and equipped with austere furnishings, includes a bed, a television, a bathroom, a kitchen, and medical equipment, as well as a small chapel.

This papal room was created from scratch in May 1981 when Pope John Paul II was seriously wounded by bullets in St. Peter's Square by the Turkish Mehmet Ali Agça, before being urgently admitted to the Gemelli for surgery.

Benedict XVI never stayed at the Gemelli, at least not publicly announced.