Charitable institutions attached to churches in Rome were founded right through the medieval period and included hospitals, hostels, and others providing assistance to pilgrims to Rome from a certain "nation", which thus became these nations' national churches in Rome (Italian: chiese nazionali). These institutions were generally organized as confraternities and funded through charity and legacies from rich benefactors belonging to that "nation". Often, they were also connected to national scholæ (ancestors of Rome's seminaries), where the clergymen of that nation were trained. The churches and their riches were a sign of the importance of their nation and of the prelates that supported them. Up to 1870 and Italian unification, these national churches also included churches of the Italian states (now called "regional churches").
Many of these organizations, lacking a purpose by the 19th century, were expropriated through the 1873 legislation on the suppression of religious corporations. In the following decades, nevertheless, various accords – ending up in the Lateran Pacts – saw the national churches' assets returned to the Catholic Church.
