Hospital de Santiago
The Santiago Hospital is a national monument projected by Andrés de Vandelvira from 1562 to1575. It is considered one of the best works of this architect and one of the great works of healthcare architecture of the Renaissance in Spain. It was ordered to be built by Don Diego de los Cobos, Bishop of Jaén, as a Hospital for the sick poor, as well as a church and a palace. It is an austere work as well as grandiose, with little ornamentation and great volume. It has two towers at the ends of the facade with glazed ceramic roofs, and another two towers that frame the great central chapel. Due to its shape, it has sometimes been called, El Escorial de Andalucía. The original ironwork was created by Juan Álvarez de Molina under the design of Vandelvira. The staircase is decorated with fresco paintings made shortly after the building was finished and attributed to Pedro de Raxis and Gabriel Rosales, documented authors of the painting of the main altarpiece, made by Blas Briño and Luis de Zayas, destroyed in 1936. Similar paintings by Mannerist style and Italian-classical influence are found in the vaults of the church, sacristy and ante-sacristy, being one of the few preserved examples of mural painting in the decoration of the Spanish Renaissance. Declared a National-Historic Architectural Monument in 1917 and is currently used as a cultural, exhibition and congress center and a library. Located on Avenida Cristo Rey.
Opening Times:
Monday-Friday, 08:00-13:30hrs and 15:30-21:30hrs
Saturday, 10:00-13:30hrs and 17:00-21:30hrs
Sunday, 10:00-13:30hrs
Holidays, 11:00-13:30 and 18:00-21:30hrs
Free Entrance.
Tel: 953 75 08 42