Hospital de la Santa Caridad, Seville

The Hospital de la Santa Caridad is a Roman Catholic charity hospital in Seville, built in the Baroque manner and still caring for elderly and sick people. Its chapel is open to visitors and is renowned for lavish sculpture. Look at the church façade: tiled panels honour Saint George, Saint James, and the theological virtues, while sculptures of King Ferdinand III and Saint Hermenegild flank the doorway.

The church opened on the sixteenth of July 1674, after Miguel de Mañara drove the building project forward; Leonardo de Figueroa later completed the façade and the tower. Inside, the major altarpiece turns an act of burial into its central drama. Pedro Roldán made its sculpture, while Valdés Leal supplied the gilding, painted finish, and colour.

The scene reflects the brotherhood’s rule that members should carry the bodies of executed people for burial. Bartolomé Murillo created eight paintings for the brotherhood in 1668. Four remain in Seville, while four others were taken by Marshal Soult in 1810 and are now dispersed among museums in Europe and North America. The building’s striking power comes from joining sumptuous art to an institution devoted to practical mercy.