The Hospital of Saint James (Santiago)

Now for our last Úbeda page: What else but another Andrés de Vandelvira building -- his spectacular hospital of Saint James (maybe the Saint James Infirmary for you jazz buffs?) It's now used as a cultural center, and we found it bursting with activity on the late Sunday afternoon of our visit. It has a double gallery. The large building rising above it is part of the "chapel" -- really church sized and now used as an auditorium. A band concert was taking place during our visit.

A model stairway

This is a huge building funded by one of the de los Cobos family to house poor patients. It functioned as a hospital for 400 years -- until 1975. The windows were enlarged during the 19th century. This is one of Vandelvira's last buildings, completed in 1575, the year of his death.

Inside it's has a typical double-gallery layout seen in many convents and hospital linked by a spectacular stairway. The landing holds...



...a large wood replica of one of his earliest buildings that put Vandelvira on the map: The Chapel our Savior in Plaza Vasquez de Molina. In some aspects, it's very faithful to the stones or the original building. For instance, the scroll held by the angels contains lettering. Yet the high windows on the real building do not have the stain glass shown here. Perhaps they once did (or perhaps Vandelvira intended for them to have it.)

Below is a detail showing the only religious depiction on the front of the chapel -- the Transfiguration of Jesus.



The monumental stairway ceiling (shown below) contains some of the rare frescoes found in the Spanish Renaissance. Making their appearance are kings and saints.



Below: More of the spectacular frescoed stairway ceiling (left) and a corner detail in the upper gallery.

Exterior

The hospital’s exterior is typically plain with some decorative molding just below the roofline using blue tiles. The central portico (below left) has classical reliefs suggesting a Greek frieze (but we'd suspect the horsebacked warrior is the bellicose apostle Saint James, patron of Spain and namesake of this hospital.) Two crests of the de los Cobos bishop who started this institution lie below it like wheels on a wagon. (Inside this huge building there was room for the bishop's tomb).


Above right: A well manicured tree sprawls beneath Vandelvira's tile-capped tower (one of four).

Thanks for staying to the end of these nine pages (but with 48 designated monuments, many of the them spectacular Renaissance buildings, we still haven't seen all of Úbeda!)

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Úbeda, Spain

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