Galleria Umberto I Torino

The Order was founded by Emanuele Filiberto in 1572, who united the hospitable Order of San Lazzaro (founded in the eleventh century) with the knightly order of San Maurizio from 1400. The Lazarites originally were noble knights Crusaders engaged in the care of lepers and this medical mission procured fame and legacies so much to constitute itself as a powerful economic entity since the sixteenth century. The Order was dissolved by Napoleon, but in 1814 he resumed his mission by founding hospitals and other charitable works, under the aegis of the royal Crown of Savoy.