Arquitectura asistencial e iconografía hospitalaria. Uso y función de una casa-hospital del siglo XVI (II)

Abstract

The exhaustive and valuable documentary set associated with the old house-hospital of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores on the island of La Palma allow us to Know in detail the social function and the internal and sanitary regime of an establishment of this tipe (diseases, curative treatments, medication, diet, higiene, hospital staff), not only as a hospital, but as a home for the poor and beggars, the cradle of foundlings and orphanage, mental hospital, asylum, women’s seclusion and prison, as well as the social profile of their patients and caregivers. To these purposes responded its architectural and spatial organization, its facilities and the theurgic role that religious iconography fulfilled as a method to withstand diseases and achieve divine protection in the midst of pain and bodily afflictions.