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The construction of the hospital was begun in 1898 on the initiative of Fr. Józef Martin Nathan. Initially, the building was intended to serve as an educational and economic center. In the completed building, an agricultural school and a school for girls were placed. Activities related to the care of the mentally ill were also initiated. In 1904, the building began to function as a psychiatric facility, and buildings erected in the years 1907-1910 were designated for the care of the sick and lonely, including homes for women and men. From its founding until the 1950s, the core of the staff consisted of nuns from the Congregation of the Sisters of Mary Immaculate, who eventually established a separate Branice province. In February 1904, Fr. Nathan obtained permission to establish the Marian Foundation, providing the hospital with a steady endowment -- he obtained donations from neighboring landowners and institutions and offices in Głubczyce. The hospital, which was often called "Nathan's Institution," encompassed a large agricultural estate with a mill, bakery, slaughterhouse, butcher shop, craft workshops, vegetable garden, and even a brick factory that provided its own building materials to the expanding hospital. Its own generator and power plant enabled the installation of a water supply network, laundry, and electric mill serving the hospital and neighboring farmers. Bishop Józef Nathan's work was a significant step in the development of psychiatric care in that area. It continues to this day in the form of the Independent Provincial Hospital for Nervous and Mentally Ill Patients. After the political transformation, from 1997, the hospital has borne the name of its founder.
