New San Martin Hospital

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Memory spaces · Year: 1775-80

This huge monumental welfare building was built between 1775 and 1780 and was down to bishop Servera, with the aim of providing services that up to then had been provided by the former hospital centre at the Plazuela de los Álamos. Its main façade had a monastical appearance, and spread out along the street currently known as calle Ramón y Cajal, as the access crossroads of the neighbourhoods of San Juan, San José and San Roque. The middle section features an ashlar portico composed of five raised segmental arches, held up on eight-sided pillars. The building houses a chapel and traditional Las Palmas style courtyards. The San Martín Hospital constituted a great health and welfare complex, equipped with large wards for the infirm, a childrens' ward, a hospice, a women's asylum, and cemetery. In both its centres, this historical hospital attended to all its patients and carried out welfare and charity activities from the end of the 15th century all the way through to the beginning of this century. 

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