The Brâncovenesc Hospital was built by Safta Brâncoveanu, the wife of Grigore Basarab Brâncoveanu, between 1835 and 1838, with the money of the land sold by her. The hospital was especially for people from the low class, but it also functioned as a medical school.
The building is strongly affected by a fire, necessitating reconstructions for 10 years, between 1880 and 1890. The building gets a new form, of the letter U, with the Domnița Bălașa Church being reconstructed in the interior of it. The hospital had 4 times more beds, getting to an impressive number of 240, and the medical standards were of the highest level. The dome of the hospital is rebuilt, and it covers a large hall where the busts of Grigore Basarab and Saftei Brâncoveanu were located. The wooden slabs were replaced by ones made out of reinforced concrete, a novelty in Romania at that time, and new blocks were added to the building.
The hospital has survived and flourished because of Safta Brâncoveanu, who specified in her testament that her lands and the income from her buildings will serve the hospital and its’ expenses. However, once the agrarian reform was established, the terrains were expropriated, and the hospital faced financial troubles, from which it escaped only with the help of Carol the 2nd.
