Remarks
This hospital was founded in 1667 by don Miguel de Mañara who, after an accident, had a vision of his own death and repented of his libertine ways and resolved to succour the poor and the needy. Visit the Baroque church with a single nave which contains some artistic jewels that Mañara commissioned form the best artists in Seville of that time. This iconographic collection illustrating the subjects of death and charity has as its aim the leading of the Brothers of Charity along the path of righteousness. Here is a foretaste of what you will see. At the entrance, under the tribune serving as a coro, you must see the crude realism of two paintings by Juan de Valdés Leal, Finis Gloriae Mundi and In Ictu Oculi. Above the coro is an Exaltation of the Cross, also by Valdés Leal. In the nave various works by Murillo illustrating the subject of charity. Not to to be missed is the superb St Elizabeth of Hungary tending the poor which heightens the sense of devotion, nor the St John of God bearing a sick man on his shoulders which shows the artist's perfect mastery of chiaroscuro At the level of the transept crossing, admire the two great horizontal canvases opposite you, The feeding of the five thousand and The Miracle of the water. The main altar is decorated with a superb Baroque retable by Pedro Roldán, in which the central panel comprises a sculpted group representing the entombment. On leaving the hospital, notice the statue of its founder and among other buildings the Torre de la Plata, a remnant of the old wall.