Antiguo Hospital Civil
The building of the Antiguo Hospital Civil de Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados (Former Civic Hospital of Our Lady of the Defenseless) in Santa Cruz de Tenerife was used as a hospital until 1971. It was declared a Monumento histórico artístico in 1983 and in 2008 with the surrounding area a Bien de Interés Cultural . In 2002 the Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre (Museum of Nature and Man) was opened there.
History of the building
The Hospital de Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados was the first charitable institution in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The clerics Rodrigo Logman van Udeen and Ignacio Logman van Udeen (parish priest of the Church of Nuestra Señora de La Concepción ) discovered that the sick and helpless old people lived in the caves of the Barrancos de Santos and other parts of the village without being cared for. That is why the Logman brothers arranged for the Count of Gomera and Margrave of Adeje to provide plots of land directly on the Barranco de Santos in 1745 for an annual payment of 40 reales . The Logman brothers used their entire fortune to build and equip the hospital. A charitable act that earned them the title of "Fathers of the Poor and All the People".
Construction work on the hospital began on February 11, 1746. When the clergy died the following year, the work could be continued thanks to a contribution from the private fund of Bishop Juan Francisco Guillén. In addition, many wealthy citizens of the city participated in the funding.
The set-up was very simple at the beginning: two hospital rooms with 15 beds for women and 15 for men, a kitchen and a dining room. In the center of the building there was a beautiful patio, the well-tended garden of which was used to please the convalescent. The hospital had a series of gardens further up in the Barranco, where the Tenerife Espacio de las Artes is now, where vegetables were grown for the sick. Pigs were also kept there. The house chapel was consecrated on July 16, 1749. During the second half of the 18th and the first half of the 19th century, new rooms were added as required. The simple two-story hospital building showed a jumbled mess of architectural styles.
The municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife assumed responsibility for the hospital on June 20, 1849 until a royal law of December 20, 1853 declared the provinces to be responsible for all welfare institutions. The provincial government decided to introduce new medical procedures and improve sanitary facilities. Manuel de Oraá was commissioned to plan a new building. The plans were approved by Madrid on February 6, 1854. Due to a lack of funds, work began a few years later. They lasted for over a decade.
The main facade was completed in 1884. On March 17, 1888, a fire destroyed the entire old part of the building complex. The reconstruction took place according to the plans of Manuel de Oráas. When he died in February 1889, Manuel de Cámara took over the architectural management. In 1898 the bronze figure of Caridad (charity) was placed over the gable of the central risalit.
In 1914, all charities in the Canary Islands became the responsibility of the newly formed Cabildos . The Cabildo de Tenerife planned to expand the hospital building to the south. The architect Antonio Pintor's designs for it were approved in 1920. The building was given three additional wings, which include two patios open to the south. The technical equipment was renewed several times and modern medical treatment methods could also be used in the hospital. The opening of the Hospital General y Clínico de Tenerife in San Cristóbal de La Laguna (now Hospital Universitario de Canarias) made the hospital in Santa Cruz de Tenerife redundant. It closed in 1971.
By the architect María Nieves Febles Benitez and the architects Agustín Cabrera Domínguez the historic building commissioned by the Cabildo Insular de Tenerife was renovated in 1994 and adapted to the needs of the Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre, that on 9 January 2002 by Queen Sofía opened has been.
description
The building complex consists of ten wings arranged around two closed courtyards and two courtyards open on one side. The classical, more than seventy meters wide main facade facing north is structured by a central projecting barely protruding from the surface and two corner projections. The top floor is separated by a tooth frieze. The central projectile has four, the side projections have two flat pilasters that extend continuously over two floors and merge into the triangular gable. The old provincial coat of arms of the Canary Islands appears in the tympanum of the central risalite. The middle triangular gable is crowned by a bronze figure that is supposed to represent charity . In the areas between the pilasters there are openings with segmental arches, on the first floor there are French doors with balcony grilles made of wrought iron. The windows in the openings in the risalits are more ornamented than those in the intermediate areas. A keystone has been added to the main entrance . In the two old patios, the galleries, which are now closed, are supported by cast iron columns. Seen from the outside, the seven old wings of the building have two and a half, while the three new, slightly higher wings have three or four complete floors.
Individual evidence
- ↑ ORDER de 2 de diciembre de 1983 por la que se declara monumento histórico artístico, de interés provincial, el edificio del antiguo Hospital Civil, cuerpo original primitivo del Arquitecto Oráa, en Santa Cruz de Tenerife Consejería de Turismo, Cultura y Deportes: Antiguo Hospital Civil. Bienes de Interés Cultural. Gobierno de Canarias, accessed May 26, 2018 (Spanish).
- ^ Alberto Darias Príncipe: Ciudad, arquitectura y memoria histórica 1500-1981 . Ed .: Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 2004, ISBN 84-89350-92-2 , pp. 120 (Spanish).
literature
- Alberto Darias Principe: Ciudad, arquitectura y memoria histórica 1500–1981 . Ed .: Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 2004, ISBN 84-89350-92-2 , pp. 119-121 (Spanish).
Web links
- Luis Cola Benítez: Apuntes históricos del antiguo Hospital de Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados. Tertulia Amigos del 25 de Julio, 2002, accessed July 1, 2018 (Spanish).
- José Manuel Ledesma Alonso: El Hospital Civil Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados. La Opinión de Tenerife, SL, December 16, 2017, accessed June 27, 2018 (Spanish).
Coordinates: 28 ° 27 '50.2 " N , 16 ° 14' 58.1" W.