Patrician and Benefactor

He was born in Sanremo on 11th July 1775 from the lawyer Gerolamo. Her mother's name was Maria Maddalena (Rosa) Capone.

He had no offspring, so he opened up his long life, all spent for the benefit of the poor, disposing, with a will of 10 January 1855, notary Rodi, confirmed with another of 15 September 1858, by the same notary, that the usufruct of his property belonged to his wife, Mrs. Caterina Grossi; but that the ownership of his house, the funds. and the shops, located in the Spirito Santo district (today Via Debenedetti), passed to his nephew, canon, lawyer Giovanni Borea. as a legacy, with the obligation to constitute every year, in perpetuity, always when there was the net product of three hundred lire, a dowry of this sum to that daughter who was recognised as poor by the Prevosto di S. Siro.

Also as a legacy, he left to the said canon Borea two lands, one in the Bonmoschetto region and the other in Pian di Nave, with the obligation to give to the poor, over 15 years old, a Money for each one, every Friday of every week.


These goods, with the addition of furniture, stuff and silverware, from Debenedetti left to his wife, and from her to Borea, were then, with a will of 24th May 1871, notaro Nota, destined by Borea to the foundation of a Mount of Mercy, which, although constituted, in a moral entity with R. Decree of July 1873, it never worked, because the funds were donated with others to the erection of the Charity Kindergarten, of which one wing bears the name of Borea, having been left aside that of Debenedetti.

Instead, Debenedetti bequeathed all his other assets to the Civil Hospital, where a plaque was walled up under his marble bust, with the following inscription dictated by the abbot Antonio Amoretti. "Pietro Debenedetti / Patrizio sanremese / who with a rare example of charity / a large part of his wealth / wanted to consecrate to this hospice / the Administration / to the grateful memory of the citizens / recommended / MDCCCLXXII / died at the age of LXXXIV years / the MDCCCLVIII".

When the Civil Hospital of the time was closed, which was located next to the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, and the one in the ancient convent of the Fathers of St. Nicholas was opened, the tombstone was abandoned.

Only in 1939, with the opening of the new Hospital on Punta Francia, it found a worthy place to remind posterity of such a worthy benefactor of the Sanremasca community in the entrance corridor on the ground floor of the hospital under the marble bust.

Debenedetti died in Sanremo on 14th November 1858.

On a resolution of the town council of 28 November 1870 the street, already called Via Spirito Santo, which leads from Piazza Eroi Sanremesi to Piazza San Siro, was dedicated to him.

(Sources: text A.Gandolfo; images from private archive)