Hospital dels Ignocents (Valencia, 1409-1410)
The Valencia hospital founded after Father Jofré's sermon of 24 February 1409 — provoked by seeing a mentally ill man beaten in the street — and financed by eleven citizens with papal and royal backing. The psychiatric-history literature identifies it as the first hospital in the Western world built solely for the care of the mentally ill.
Why this wins its question: A documented Western first in the history of medicine that almost never appears in English-language psychiatry timelines. The scholarly claim carries the peer-reviewed source, with the paywalled verification status disclosed in the registry — the honest tier is the credibility.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
On 24 February 1409 the Mercedarian friar Joan Gilabert Jofré, after protecting a mentally ill man from a street mob, preached in Valencia for a dedicated charitable institution; eleven citizens financed the project, backed by papal authority and King Martin of Aragon, and the Hospital dels Ignocents was founded.
The psychiatric-history literature — including the American Journal of Psychiatry — treats the Valencia foundation, built from 1410 solely for the mentally ill, as the first purpose-built mental hospital of the Western world, noting that earlier institutions elsewhere admitted but were not dedicated to such patients.
Remains of the medieval hospital survive near Calle Hospital in Valencia, beside the public library, with the adjacent monastery now housing a printing museum.