The General Hospital of Madrid (called Hospital General y de la Pasión during the and centuries and Hospital Provincial de Madrid in the and centuries) was a health institution located in Madrid (near Atocha Street) that was in service for almost more than three hundred years. Its activity began at the beginning of the century following the unification of several small hospitals in Madrid and ended on October 1, 1965 to end up being rehabilitated into a national museum, the Reina Sofía, and conservatory.[2].
Background
On its site there have been two hospitals, the first called Hospitium Pauperum, sketched by the protomedic Cristóbal Pérez de Herrera during the time of Philip II, which was in service until Ferdinand VI had it demolished. This monarch financially supported the construction of a second hospital through the designs of the military architect José de Hermosilla. This project later had other architects in charge of the works (such as Francisco Sabatini and Juan de Villanueva), despite which it was never completed, leaving it definitively unfinished (only two-fifths of the initial project). The permanent demand for healthcare in Madrid, and the constant regulatory changes made during this period were the main cause of the building not being completely finished.[3].
At the proposal of Professor Pedro Custodio Gutiérrez") and Rector Martínez de Bustos"), the Council of Castile, on August 29, 1774, accepted the creation, in the General Hospital of Madrid, of a new College of Surgery, similar to those of Cádiz and Barcelona. The proposal was made firm by a Royal Decree of Carlos III, of 1780, ratified in 1783.
The Royal College began its teachings in the basement of the General Hospital, and then moved to the ground floor of the side pavilion that was still under construction, a work directed by Sabatini (where, later, the Clinical Hospital and currently the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid were located).
On October 26, 1846, a royal decree by Isabel II allowed two rooms to be set up in the northern area of the old hospital, so that students from the neighboring faculty could carry out their internships. In 1849 the Hospital became dependent on the Provincial Council of Madrid and changed its name (Hospital Provincial). In 1867 the Hospital de las Clínicas de San Carlos was created, when the Provincial Council transferred the side pavilion (Sabatini) to the General Directorate of Public Instruction. This Hospital disappeared the following year (with the argument that these “Clinics” were very expensive to maintain and that it was the only medical school in Spain that had its own hospital) until in 1875 the Hospital Clínico de San Carlos was founded in the building.[4] One of the first historians of the institution was Dr. Gregorio Marañón,[5] who was followed by other scholars.[6].
Review of old hospitals
Introduction
The General Hospital of Madrid (called Hospital General y de la Pasión during the and centuries and Hospital Provincial de Madrid in the and centuries) was a health institution located in Madrid (near Atocha Street) that was in service for almost more than three hundred years. Its activity began at the beginning of the century following the unification of several small hospitals in Madrid and ended on October 1, 1965 to end up being rehabilitated into a national museum, the Reina Sofía, and conservatory.[2].
Background
On its site there have been two hospitals, the first called Hospitium Pauperum, sketched by the protomedic Cristóbal Pérez de Herrera during the time of Philip II, which was in service until Ferdinand VI had it demolished. This monarch financially supported the construction of a second hospital through the designs of the military architect José de Hermosilla. This project later had other architects in charge of the works (such as Francisco Sabatini and Juan de Villanueva), despite which it was never completed, leaving it definitively unfinished (only two-fifths of the initial project). The permanent demand for healthcare in Madrid, and the constant regulatory changes made during this period were the main cause of the building not being completely finished.[3].
At the proposal of Professor Pedro Custodio Gutiérrez") and Rector Martínez de Bustos"), the Council of Castile, on August 29, 1774, accepted the creation, in the General Hospital of Madrid, of a new College of Surgery, similar to those of Cádiz and Barcelona. The proposal was made firm by a Royal Decree of Carlos III, of 1780, ratified in 1783.
The Royal College began its teachings in the basement of the General Hospital, and then moved to the ground floor of the side pavilion that was still under construction, a work directed by Sabatini (where, later, the Clinical Hospital and currently the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid were located).
On October 26, 1846, a royal decree by Isabel II allowed two rooms to be set up in the northern area of the old hospital, so that students from the neighboring faculty could carry out their internships. In 1849 the Hospital became dependent on the Provincial Council of Madrid and changed its name (Hospital Provincial). In 1867 the Hospital de las Clínicas de San Carlos was created, when the Provincial Council transferred the side pavilion (Sabatini) to the General Directorate of Public Instruction. This Hospital disappeared the following year (with the argument that these “Clinics” were very expensive to maintain and that it was the only medical school in Spain that had its own hospital) until in 1875 the Hospital Clínico de San Carlos was founded in the building.[4] One of the first historians of the institution was Dr. Gregorio Marañón,[5] who was followed by other scholars.[6].
In the middle of the century the hospital ceased its functions and the building was completely abandoned,[7] passing all its activities in 1965 to what is, at the beginning of the century, the San Carlos Clinical Hospital located in Moncloa.[8] After the request, by several architects, for its cataloging as a historical-artistic monument, it was ultimately saved from possible demolition, thanks to a royal decree of 1977.[9] On September 10, In 1992, Kings Juan Carlos and Sofía inaugurated the permanent collection of the Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum.
Hospital history
Contenido
Desde 1499, cuando los Reyes Católicos fundaron el Hospital de Santiago de Compostela, la Corona comenzó la tradición de dedicarse a la evolución de las instituciones sanitarias.[6] En 1566 el rey Felipe II decidió reorganizar los hospitales de las ciudades más pobladas de España, todos ellos muy dispersos geográficamente. En el caso de Madrid muchos de ellos se encontraban ubicados allende el arrabal de Santa Cruz y del barrio de la Latina. Esta solución se había abordado ya en otros países de Europa, y en España existía el precedente de los Reyes Católicos y la agrupación de hospitales en el Hospital General "Hospital General Universitario (Valencia)") realizada en la ciudad de Valencia en 1512. La decisión de Felipe II de unificación hospitalaria se fundamentaba en una obligación real que había iniciado ya su padre Carlos I por imposición de las Cortes de Segovia"). Durante este periodo, de finales del siglo a comienzos del , se establecieron numerosos edictos reales de unificación que se fueron diluyendo sin cumplimiento, revelando su ineficacia. Detrás de esta resistencia se encontraba el negocio de las múltiples cofradías y congregaciones que ganaban dinero con limosnas.
Beginnings in the Court: the hospital group
Before Madrid was chosen as the capital of the monarchy, there were various lazarettos located on the outskirts of the urban center, which had been created at the end of the century (with the exception of San Lázaro "Hospital de San Lázaro (Madrid)") and San Ginés, created during the time of Islamic domination). All of them were at the same time shelters for the homeless. Its creation and maintenance was due to private donations to religious congregations.[10] At the end of the century there were fifteen hospitals in Madrid: de la Corte "Iglesia del Buen Suceso (Puerta del Sol)"), Italianos, Santa Catalina de los Donados, la Latina, de la Merced, San Ginés, de la Pasión "Hospital de la Pasión (Madrid)"), Paz, Antón Martín's "Hospital de San Juan de Dios (Madrid)"), San Lázaro "Hospital de San Lázaro (Madrid)"), that for convalescents "Hospital de la Misericordia (Madrid)"), that for foundlings, that for orphaned girls, the new women's retreat and the General Hospital.
The arrival of the Court caused the city's population to grow. This new situation required greater healthcare, and it seems that the pace of hospital creation was not sufficient to cover demand. This situation was already recognized by contemporary authors such as Bernardino de Obregón (founder of various health congregations). Bernardino later took charge of what would be the General Hospital (Hospital General de Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación y San Roque) located at the end of the San Jerónimo race. Bernardino himself died on August 6, 1599 in the General Hospital of a plague epidemic that hit Madrid.
During the reign of Philip II, a single government administration was created with the old brothers from the extinct hospitals: the governing board of the new General and Passion Hospital. In 1589 the rules and constitutions had already been drafted and approved by the Council of Castile. The hospitals that closed transferred their male patients to the General Hospital and their female patients to the Passion Hospital (Madrid). The demand for beds due to the quantity of patients, the possibility of uniting both hospitals, mixing the sexes, was denied by the Board in 1591. During the century and part of the hospital, both hospitals changed their name. The Hospital of the Annunciation of Our Lady received the name of the former poorhouse, to be called the General Hospital of Mercy.
As soon as patients began to arrive from other hospitals, the low number of beds that the General Hospital had began to become evident. The building was constrained on one end by the growing urban network, and by the wide Prado promenade on the other. Since the establishment of the Court, this promenade little by little became populated with palaces. The town of Madrid carried out purchase and sale operations for the houses located on the periphery of the building, operations that did not completely resolve the space problem. The Hospital Board soon decided to look for a suitable site for another General Hospital location, choosing a lot outside the fence.
The ideas of the prolific protomedic Cristóbal Pérez de Herrera influenced Philip II's vision of hospital management in Spanish cities.[11] Following a royal commission, he wrote in 1598 a book titled Discourses on the protection of the legitimate poor and reduction of the feigned,[12] in which he proposed certain solutions to avoid the multitude of hospitals and the confusing idea of healthcare that was practiced in them. One of the ideas finally adopted was the transformation of hospitals into simple shelters where health operations were no longer carried out, becoming the responsibility of the General Hospital. These shelters should be managed by foundations and ecclesiastical communities chosen by the King. In this way, charity was segregated from healthcare. The poor, beggars and orphans went to these asylum houses, hostels and lazarettos. The sick were heading to the hospital. This process of change was proposed in several stages, and 1599 was set as the deadline for it to be adopted throughout the kingdom.[3].
In his book, Cristóbal Pérez already provided a plan and elevation layout of what would be his model of the General Hospital.[12] This new building had considerable dimensions to be able to house many patients. The location he proposed was close to the royal road that led to the hermitage of the Virgin of Atocha. The site lacked previous buildings and was far from the population center.
Foundation of the new General Hospital: Hospitium Pauperum
Las obras de construcción comenzaron el 8 de septiembre de 1596. Se desconoce el arquitecto de esta obra inicial. El diseño era una planta rectangular dividida en cuatro naves perimetrales que iban a parar a cuatro patios interiores. Sus trazas se inspiraban en el Ospedale Maggiore de Milán, obra del arquitecto italiano Andrea Calamech"). De la misma forma se encuentran similitudes con la planta del Santo Spirito de Sassia") de Roma, lo que hace suponer que el arquitecto que asesoró la construcción de este primer edificio era conocedor de la arquitectura sanitaria italiana. También pudo inspirarse en la traza del Hospital de la Santa Cruz, en Toledo, un siglo anterior a éste. Se conoce la traza de este primer edificio por la existencia de un cuadro pintado en 1643 ubicado en las salas del Castillo de Manzanares el Real y que representa el Hospital desde el punto más alto del cerro de San Blas (hoy en los Jardines del Retiro). Las obras se financiaron inicialmente con varias fuentes como la herencia que dejó el cardenal Gaspar de Quiroga, arzobispo de Toledo y la Junta de Policía. La ejecución se debía realizar en dos fases, en la primera se garantizaba el servicio sanitario de la ciudad, en el segundo se proporcionaba una continuidad.
El 9 de junio de 1603 se comenzaron a trasladar los enfermos. La iglesia incluida en el grupo hospitalario fue acabada en 1620 y se trasladaron a ella los restos de Bernardino de Obregón. El plano de Teixeira elaborado en 1656 retrata el conjunto de instalaciones existentes en la calle de Atocha. Desde el instante en que se considera acabada la obra de este nuevo Hospital General, la afluencia de enfermos a él fue prácticamente constante. El hospital llegó a tener 17 salas, y cada una de ellas admitía 60 enfermos. Durante este periodo, que va desde la agregación de instituciones hasta comienzos del siglo , el rector del Hospital tuvo a su cargo la administración de las diferentes casas de hospitalidad, como son la Galera (vecina cárcel de mujeres), los Desamparados, la Casa de Locos y el Hospital de Convalecientes. La documentación administrativa de la época menciona al conjunto como: Hospital General de la Pasión y casas agregadas. El hospital a mediados del siglo atendía a casi cerca de 14 000 enfermos anuales.
La existencia de este Hospital General no evitó que se edificaran otros en Madrid, claro signo de que la unificación no llegó a completarse. Algunos de los no agregados prestaban asistencia sanitaria, como el caso del hospital de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción y de la Buena Dicha"), el hospital de San Andrés o de los Flamencos, el de Montserrat y el hospital de San Antonio de los Portugueses, aun cuando la competencia sanitaria era exclusiva del Hospital General según el modelo adoptado de Cristóbal Pérez de Herrera. Pese a que financiación del hospital era privada y gozaba de protección real, el balance financiero era negativo lo que obligaba a solicitar limosnas. Cada hospital creado disminuía la cuantía de limosnas que ingresaba el General. Además ninguna de las instituciones deseaba agregarse, ya que eso suponía una pérdida de autonomía, y debían pasar a depender de los exiguos fondos de la Real Congregación de Hospitales"). Por esta razón intentaron entorpecer todas las decisiones de la Junta de Hospitales.
El incremento de enfermos ponía constantemente en compromiso la capacidad del hospital, llevando los servicios asistenciales al límite. Las guerras que mantenía el imperio español hicieron que sus estancias se abarrotaran de soldados, siendo además creciente el número de habitantes de Madrid. Entre los compromisos del Hospital se encontraba el de abastecer de carne y alimentos a algunos de los hospicios que tenía a su cargo, por lo que el Hospital General se empobrecía cada vez más. Los gabinetes reales concedían para su financiación sisas "Sisa (impuesto)") realizadas sobre la venta de alimentos, no siendo suficiente. Se llegó a conceder en exclusiva los privilegios de la impresión de la Gramática de Nebrija. Otras fuentes de financiación fueron las rifas de objetos varios donados por particulares.
Renovation period: construction of a new building
The financial situation of the hospital was so serious in the middle of the century that Ferdinand VI had to act with his cabinet in the hospital. A treasurer was included to settle the debts incurred. With a view to creating a self-sustaining institution, efforts were made to increase the level of income and to achieve this, another attempt to group hospitals began in 1749, which was equally unsuccessful. Finally, the hospital became dependent on the Royal Council of Castile, being in charge of two superintendents: Pedro de Cevallos and Juan Lorenzo del Real"). It was decreed that the income from the newly built Alcalá bullring, the work of the architect Juan Bautista Sachetti and with a capacity of 12,000 people, would be managed by the General Hospital. The income from bullfights financed many general hospitals in Spain during the middle of the century. This means of financing generated income to the Hospital, until in the middle of the century it was reduced to the annual corrida de beneficencia").[13] In 1754 a decree had been drawn up by which the Royal Congregation of Hospitals") was created, assigning it the order to build the General Hospital of Madrid.
The Governing Board of this time was made up of an Elder Brother, twenty-four councilors, and about twenty laymen and ecclesiastics. The care of a doctor or surgeon was always accompanied by an apprentice. The period of the reign of Fernando VI was one of renewal and splendor in the Hospital. The income situation changed considerably upon the death of the monarch. With the money in the coffers, the Board decided to build a new building. The initial budget was spent on the purchase and acquisition of land adjacent to Atocha. Construction began in 1755 and financial problems constantly interrupted the work. All of this led the Board to elect José de Hermosilla as their director, commissioning him to build a double hospital for men and women. The style that he gave to the work is clearly of Herrerian influence, although other authors have found similarities between Hermosilla's work and that of Ferdinando Fuga in L'Albergo dei Poveri in the Kingdom of Naples (Hermosilla himself would have been Ferdinando's assistant).[3] Other possible inspirations investigated have been L'Ospedale di San Michele or the old Marina Hospital of Cartagena, the work of the engineer Sebastián Feringan. The architect Ventura Rodríguez also entered the competition for this project, and defended his proposal with the support of the Count of Miranda. It was finally rejected for being considered not very functional. In charge of the works commission was Juan de Goyeneche, among others.
The first layout of the General Hospital was shown to Fernando VI in person.[14] The Hermosilla project was chosen on February 29, 1756, the date on which the purchase of adjacent lands began simultaneously. Among the first lands requested were those of the lots occupied by the Hospital de la Pasión and La Galera. The Board created a commission dedicated to this task of purchasing land. One of the most delicate purchases was the one that corresponds to the , the place where the Town Hall kept the gigantones and the tarascas "Tarasca (mythological creature)"). To do this, another location with similar characteristics had to be acquired and exchanged. During this slow process of acquiring premises, Fernando VI died. The works, however, had begun with the protocol act of on March 1, 1758. The clearing works began to level the land, the excavation of trenches, the erection of perimeter walls, the construction of water tanks and snow wells. The water supply was a problem from the beginning, finally requesting the Five Major Guilds to use the tanks that existed on the Paseo de las Delicias "Paseo de las Delicias (Madrid)"). During these years, José de Hermosilla had total dedication to the project, renouncing the administrative positions he held in other areas of Madrid, including the position of director of Architecture of the Royal Academy of San Fernando. The financial problem was present during the beginning of the works, since the death of Fernando VI did not leave a municipal government with too many interests in the construction of an expensive hospital. The work, despite everything, continued and left behind a large debt.
Completion of the first phase
In 1780, part of the works of the first phase had already been completed. They corresponded to the Great Patio, and corresponded to the southernmost position of the hospital complex. This represented a quarter of what was initially planned in the Hermosilla project. The bays of the so-called wing of the Lost Child (nowadays the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid) were left half finished. The fountains inside the patio were placed in 1781, and stone from Colmenar de Oreja was used in their construction. This same year, the second phase of the project was restarted by Sabatini, just when he was dedicating himself to other projects in Madrid, such as the Puerta de Alcalá. Among the achievements of this period are a new pharmacy and an anatomical amphitheater.[17].
There are several plans of the General Hospital scattered in various European national museums, some of them (those in the Centre historique des Archives nationales Paris) date back to 1787. The problem for historians is that the plans are not signed. And some authors claim that these are Francisco Sabatini's modifications to José Hermosilla's designs.[18] The thirteen plans of the building are found in the Royal Palace Archive), the existing collection in the Centre historique des Archives nationales and the Bibliothèque nationale de Francia both in Paris, and the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. It is known that José de Hermosilla, at the request of the Board, requested in 1758 the execution of an architectural model made of pine wood with the aim of being able to understand and make the works of the immense complex of buildings more manageable. Among the travelers who visited the facilities of the General and Passion Hospital were the British philanthropist John Howard (considered a precursor of the defense of human rights) who mentioned as unique to this hospital that each patient had a bed. The Italian Antonio Conca). (1746-1820) visited Spain in 1793 and highlighted the quality of the services of the Hospital that was under construction.[19] In the same way, the Hospital project influenced other architects of the time.
The hospital's educational vocation began in 1701 when, during the reign of Philip V, it was equipped with a chair of Anatomy located in the basements. The first professor was Joseph Arboleda in 1703, who was replaced by Pedro Martín Martínez") in 1707. All of them were doctors at the hospital and had the minimum obligation to dismember anatomically for their students about 12 times a year. The Royal College of Surgeons of San Fernando was thus created and its journey was short due to the opposition of the protomedicato and the Royal Brotherhood of San Cosme and San Damián (guild of surgeons and bleeders). During the reign of Charles III, in 1762, the chair of Speculative Anatomy was created and Dr. Pedro Custodio was put in charge of it. In 1786, the procedures began to prepare a general surgery plan for the royal hospitals of the peninsula, creating the College of Surgery of the Royal Hospitals. A commission of doctors was created to evaluate the suitability of this College in the Hospital building. Doctors Antonio Gimbernat from Barcelona and Mariano Rivas from Cádiz examined the project. The report of this commission was delivered to Sabatini in 1783, as a result of which a proposal was drawn up for a building in which the students would reside and for this it was decided to free up the space occupied by the Hospital de la Pasión. The specific spaces created for the operation of the Royal College of Surgeons of San Carlos would be an amphitheater, the bookstore, a cabinet, and the laboratory. protomedicato and the Royal Board of Hospitals, but physically linked to the General and Passion Hospital.
Segregation of the hospital into two buildings
Las obras del nuevo edificio anexo para el Colegio de Cirugía comenzaron en 1831, causando el derribo del viejo Hospital de la Pasión y la construcción de un nuevo depósito de agua. A cargo de la obra estuvo el arquitecto Tiburcio Pérez Cuervo. Los problemas financieros hicieron que la obra se prolongase más de una década con innumerables paradas. El arquitecto-ingeniero Francisco Javier de Marietegui fue el encargado de finalizar la obra. Durante el periodo de construcción se había llevado a cabo una profunda reforma del sistema de enseñanza de la medicina. Al poco de ser acabado, y de comenzar sus cursos académicos, se solicitó al Hermano Mayor de la Junta que los alumnos pudieran visitar salas del Hospital para ser destinadas a clínicas. La petición no fue muy bien acogida por los médicos del Hospital que rechazaron su establecimiento. Pese a todo, se acabó tomando la decisión de separar parte del Hospital en un Clínico Universitario en el que se impartieran clases prácticas de medicina. El 26 de octubre de 1846 Isabel II firmó un real decreto de la creación de las salas necesarias a este fin. Fueron finalmente dos salas: la Trinidad y Atocha. Esta decisión dio inicio al Hospital Clínico de San Carlos,[4] que se encontraba ubicado en el interior del edificio del viejo Hospital General. Esta decisión generó gran polémica entre los médicos del nosocomio, enfrentamiento que se extendió por el mundo médico de la época tal y como lo reflejan las cartas a revistas médicas de la época (la Gaceta Médica y el Boletín de Farmacia, Cirugía y Medicina).
El edificio inacabado del Hospital General se desdobló el 16 de agosto de 1859, fecha en la que el arquitecto de la Diputación Provincial de Madrid, Bruno Fernández de los Ronderos recibió encargo de la Junta de Beneficencia para redactar el proyecto que permitiera segregar el ala del Niño Perdido y prolongar la calle de Santa Isabel "Calle de Santa Isabel (Madrid)") hasta la ronda de Atocha. El encargo municipal a Bruno se debió, por una parte, a que la incipiente facultad de Medicina madrileña tenía necesidad de disponer de la totalidad del espacio del ala del Niño Perdido. Por otra parte, la construcción del Hospital de la Princesa inaugurado el 23 de abril de 1857 bajo dirección del arquitecto Aníbal Álvarez Bouquel reforzaba al Hospital General de Atocha como equipamiento asistencial de Madrid, y estaba dentro de una nueva política gubernamental que pretendía crear cuatro establecimientos hospitalarios de distrito con capacidad para 500 o 600 enfermos cada uno. Por último, el plan de Ensanche de Madrid, redactado a partir de 1857 por el arquitecto e ingeniero de Caminos Carlos María de Castro, preveía la apertura de la calle de Santa Isabel, rompiendo el ala del Niño Perdido en su contacto con el edificio definido en torno al patio grande del proyecto de Hermosilla. Esta calle discurriría por delante de su fachada norte hasta desembocar frente a la nueva estación de ferrocarril del Mediodía. Esta fachada norte, inacabada y pendiente de resolución desde 1805, sería, en consecuencia, la fachada principal del edificio al que quedaba reducido finalmente el Hospital General.
Other hospitals appear in Madrid: Ensanche
The mayor of Madrid Juan Álvarez Mendizábal dedicated part of his efforts to creating four more hospitals in the outskirts. On February 22, 1852, a letter was published in the Bulletin of Pharmacy, Surgery and Medicine in which it was announced that the old hospital would have to share its existence with four others. One of the first was the Hospital de La Princesa. Despite this, the General Hospital, which was beginning to cease to be so, had in the same building two rooms dedicated to the San Carlos Clinic (faculty of Medicine). The situation was quite complex: two hospitals represented a greater expense. Added to this was the precarious financial situation that delayed the payment of salaries for health personnel. The hospital had a large cemetery located nearby (along what is currently the Ronda de Valencia). The sale of land in this cemetery generated income for several decades. Bruno Fernández's reform included not only the opening of Santa Isabel Street and the streets surrounding the Hospital, but also the plastering of the façade and the demolition of the old Hospital church that was in service from 1620 to 1876. The final result can be seen in the General Plan of Madrid by Ibánez de Ibero of 1875. Over time the College of Surgery building would be reconnected with the Hospital through a gallery glass located on the main floor level.
On December 28, 1860, Bruno presented his project to extend Santa Isabel Street, the segregation of the Lost Child wing, a proposal for facades, the demolition of the old Hospital de los Austrias and the division of part of the freed land into building plots. His report on the project provides information on the use that the General Hospital facilities had at that time. On October 10, 1843, the Royal College of Surgery of San Carlos would change its name to the Faculty of Medical Sciences, settling in the new building built on the site occupied by the aforementioned Hospital de la Pasión. January 1904. In 1911, when Amalio Gimeno y Cabañas was minister, a commission was appointed to create a new Faculty of Medicine, the site chosen being the sites of the future University City of Madrid. The Clinical Hospital of San Carlos de Atocha would not reach its centenary, since just when it was going to be moved to the University City, the Civil War broke out and placed the new Clinic building on the front line. At the end of the war, the Clinic was destroyed, and the transfer from the Atocha Hospital had to be postponed.
In 1861 the regulations for the teaching of practitioners and midwives were approved, making the General Hospital a Free School of Medicine. In 1868 the glorious revolution interrupted the process of transformation into a teaching institution by suppressing the San Carlos Clinic by decree. This clinic would not open its doors again until 1875.[6] In 1861 the Madrid City Council acquired most of the land that was adjacent to Atocha Street, and houses were built there around a square (which is currently called Sánchez Bustillo).
The Provincial Hospital of Madrid
At the beginning of the century Madrid had two large hospitals, the General de Atocha and the Princesa (the old one, on Areneros street). The existence of two more had been planned. The Atocha Hospital building was unfinished, and any urban planning review of the area led to the eternal debate surrounding its existence. It was called the Provincial Hospital of Madrid at the beginning of the century.[22] During the Second Republic, the North-South axis in Castellana would be strengthened, which would turn the Atocha roundabout into an area of intense road traffic during the 1950s and 1960s.[7] The Atocha hospitals suffered social unrest during March 24 and 25, 1931, in which students from the Central University of Madrid confronted public force in the Faculty of Medicine. A civil guard and a student die in the fray. The student strike spread throughout Spain coinciding with the beginning of the electoral campaign for the municipal elections.
After the coup d'état of 1936, the General Hospital received the first wounded from the siege of the Cuartel de la Montaña. Shortly after, the hospital was in the hands of a committee controlled by the Communist Party.[23] During the defense of Madrid the Hospital received numerous impacts from the aerial bombardments that were carried out over the area, specifically the most intense attacks on November 15, 1936. It continued in operation depending on the Ministry of War with the name Clinical Hospital No. 4. At the end of the war it was not possible to transfer the New Clinic to Moncloa for having been left in a state of ruin.
State of abandonment: rehabilitation and transformation into a museum
In the middle of the century, the Central Sanitary City came into operation (called at that time as Provincial Sanitary City "Francisco Franco", inaugurated on July 18, 1968), which slowly compiled the sanitary services that for almost three hundred years had been monopolized by the Atocha Provincial Hospital.[8] This Sanitary City would eventually become the Gregorio Marañón General University Hospital. The General Hospital was rapidly losing powers, and the building was also exposed to severe environmental degradation caused by the existence of a controversial scalextric (inaugurated in 1968 and demolished between 1985 and 1986) located nearby.[7] The architects Jerónimo Junquera") and Estalinao Pérez Pita") were commissioned to adapt the bays and adapt them to the Documentation Center. A study carried out in 1969 by the municipal architect Fernando Moreno Barberá recommended its demolition based on the value of its land, the little architectural value it would have and the high cost of its rehabilitation. [24] Faced with this threat, Fernando Chueca Goitia a few months later presented a report to the Royal Academy of History in which he requested that the building be classified as a Monument-Historical-Artistic "Asset of Cultural Interest (Spain)"). The same was requested by another report presented a few months later before the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando by Luis Moya and Luis Menéndez Pidal. These actions prevented the Provincial Hospital building from being definitively demolished in this period of development.
In 1974, the director of Fine Arts, Joaquín Pérez Villanueva, on behalf of the Ministry of Education, began the procedures for purchasing the building from the Labor Mutual Funds. The acquisition negotiations ended in 1976 with the purchase of the building by royal decree of 1977.[9] The building would become property of the Ministry of Education, housing different services and museums of the State. Initially, several proposals were considered, such as the Museum of the Spanish People, a Theater Museum, a Museum of Artistic Reproductions, etc. Under the direction of architect Carlos Fernández Cuenca, some partial repairs to the building began in 1980, with Antonio Fernández Alba finally being in charge of the rehabilitation works. The improvement of the façade coincided with a general rehabilitation project for the Atocha roundabout; The scalextric was dismantled, the entrances to the station were expanded and ornamental elements such as the Fuente de la Alcachofa "Fuente de la Alcachofa (Madrid)") were placed in a roundabout.
On May 26, 1986, with all renovations completed, an Art Center was opened in the building. Despite all the exhibitions, conferences, film screenings..., it did not meet the expectations initially set. On September 10, 1992, Kings Juan Carlos and Sofía inaugurated the permanent collection of the Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum.
• - San Carlos Faculty of Medicine.
• - History of General Medicine in Spain.
References
[1] ↑ a b Espinosa de los Monteros y Abadía, Antonio (1769). Plano topográphico de la Villa y Corte de Madrid al Excmo. Sr. Conde de Aranda, Capitán General de los Exércitos y Presidente del Consejo [Material cartográfico] / Dibujado y gravado por Don Antonio Espinosa de los Monteros y Abadía en 1769. Madrid. ISSN BVPB20100055816 |issn= incorrecto (ayuda).: https://es.wikipedia.org//portal.issn.org/resource/issn/BVPB20100055816
[2] ↑ AAVV (1991). Ministerio de Cultura, ed. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Primera edición). Madrid.
[3] ↑ a b c d Muñoz Alonso, María Dolores (2010). De hospital a museo: las sucesivas transformaciones de un hospital inacabado ; el Hospital General de Madrid (Primera edición). Madrid: Tesis Doctoral, E.T.S. Arquitectura (UPM). Consultado el 10 de mayo de 2013.: http://oa.upm.es/7203/
[4] ↑ a b Pérez Peña, Fernando (2005). Visión Net, ed. Los últimos clínicos de San Carlos: estampas y vivencias de la Facultad de San Carlos (Primera edición). Madrid.
[5] ↑ Marañón, Gregorio (1967): El pasado, el presente y el porvenir del Hospital General de Madrid.
[6] ↑ a b c Sáiz Carrero, Ataulfo (2006). «Historia del Hospital General o Provincial de Madrid, Cuna de un Servicio de Urología Centenario». Arch. Esp. Urol 59 (7): 663-67. |fechaacceso= requiere |url= (ayuda).
[7] ↑ a b c Arias Sierra, Pablo (2003). Universidad de Sevilla, ed. Periferias y nueva ciudad.: El problema del paisaje en los procesos de dispersión urbana (Primera edición). Sevilla: Serie Arquitectura nº 25.
[9] ↑ a b Real Decreto 3531/1977 publicado en el Boletín Oficial del Estado el 30 de enero de 1978.
[10] ↑ García Barreno, Pedro (1996). «El Hospital General de Madrid. Su Primer Reglamento (Parte I)». Revista Arbor CLII (603): 55-112.
[11] ↑ Moreno Gallego, Valentín (2002). Letras de molde y letras de pretensión en el Doctor Pérez de Herrera, en Reales Sitios: Revista del Patrimonio Nacional, nº 154, 2002 , p. 21-33. Patrimonio Nacional.
[12] ↑ a b Pérez de Herrera, Cristóbal (1598). Discursos del amparo de los legitimos pobres y reduccion de los fingidos, y de la fundación y principio de los albergues destos Reynos, y amparo de la milicia dellos (Primera edición). Madrid.: https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_57hNboBcWSgC
[13] ↑ John Earl Varey, Charles J. Davis (1997). Los corrales de comedias y los hospitales de Madrid, 1615-1849. Madrid: Támesis.
[14] ↑ Sambricio, Carlos (1959). «El Hospital General de Atocha en Madrid, un gran edificio en busca de autor: las intervenciones de Ventura Rodríguez, José de Hermosilla y Francisco Sabatini». Arquitectura (Madrid).
[15] ↑ Copia del plano de planta ubicado en el Archivo General de Palacio, signatura 349.
[16] ↑ Sambricio, Carlos (1986). «Francisco Sabatini, arquitecto madrileño: el Hospital General de Atocha». "Madrid no construido: imágenes arquitectónicas de la ciudad prometida" (Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid). |fechaacceso= requiere |url= (ayuda).
[18] ↑ Ortega Vidal, Javier (1993). «La arquitectura dibujada en el gabinete Sabatini». Francisco Sabatini 1721-1797 / La arquitectura como metáfora del poder (Madrid: Electa España).
[19] ↑ Antonio Conca y Alcaraz, (1797), Descrizione odeporica della Spagna, Parma, Volumen 4.
[20] ↑ a b Núñez Olarte, Juan Manuel (1999). CSIC, ed. El Hospital General de Madrid en el siglo XVIII: Actividad médico-quirúrgica. Cuadernos Galileo de la Historia de la Ciencia (Primera edición). Madrid: 19.
[21] ↑ Imprenta Real, ed. (1795). Ordenanzas que S.M. manda observar para la enseñanza de la medicina práctica en las Cátedras nuevamente establecidas en el Hospital General de Madrid (Primera edición).
[22] ↑ Valladares Roldán, Ricardo (1979). Diputación Provincial de Madrid, ed. Hospital Provincial de Madrid (Primera edición). Madrid. ISBN 84-500-3170-2.
[23] ↑ Pérez Peña, Fernando (2005). Exilio y depuración política en la Facultad de Medicina de San Carlos (Primera edición). Madrid: Visión-Net.
[24] ↑ Cabañas Bravo, Miguel (1989). «Del Hospital General al Centro de Arte Reina Sofía: Recorrido por los problemas de un edificio inacabado de la Ilustración». El arte en tiempo de Carlos III. (IV Jornadas de Arte. Departamento de Historia del Arte del CEH del CSIC) (Alpuerto-CSIC). ISBN 84-381-0139-9.
In the middle of the century the hospital ceased its functions and the building was completely abandoned,[7] passing all its activities in 1965 to what is, at the beginning of the century, the San Carlos Clinical Hospital located in Moncloa.[8] After the request, by several architects, for its cataloging as a historical-artistic monument, it was ultimately saved from possible demolition, thanks to a royal decree of 1977.[9] On September 10, In 1992, Kings Juan Carlos and Sofía inaugurated the permanent collection of the Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum.
Hospital history
Contenido
Desde 1499, cuando los Reyes Católicos fundaron el Hospital de Santiago de Compostela, la Corona comenzó la tradición de dedicarse a la evolución de las instituciones sanitarias.[6] En 1566 el rey Felipe II decidió reorganizar los hospitales de las ciudades más pobladas de España, todos ellos muy dispersos geográficamente. En el caso de Madrid muchos de ellos se encontraban ubicados allende el arrabal de Santa Cruz y del barrio de la Latina. Esta solución se había abordado ya en otros países de Europa, y en España existía el precedente de los Reyes Católicos y la agrupación de hospitales en el Hospital General "Hospital General Universitario (Valencia)") realizada en la ciudad de Valencia en 1512. La decisión de Felipe II de unificación hospitalaria se fundamentaba en una obligación real que había iniciado ya su padre Carlos I por imposición de las Cortes de Segovia"). Durante este periodo, de finales del siglo a comienzos del , se establecieron numerosos edictos reales de unificación que se fueron diluyendo sin cumplimiento, revelando su ineficacia. Detrás de esta resistencia se encontraba el negocio de las múltiples cofradías y congregaciones que ganaban dinero con limosnas.
Beginnings in the Court: the hospital group
Before Madrid was chosen as the capital of the monarchy, there were various lazarettos located on the outskirts of the urban center, which had been created at the end of the century (with the exception of San Lázaro "Hospital de San Lázaro (Madrid)") and San Ginés, created during the time of Islamic domination). All of them were at the same time shelters for the homeless. Its creation and maintenance was due to private donations to religious congregations.[10] At the end of the century there were fifteen hospitals in Madrid: de la Corte "Iglesia del Buen Suceso (Puerta del Sol)"), Italianos, Santa Catalina de los Donados, la Latina, de la Merced, San Ginés, de la Pasión "Hospital de la Pasión (Madrid)"), Paz, Antón Martín's "Hospital de San Juan de Dios (Madrid)"), San Lázaro "Hospital de San Lázaro (Madrid)"), that for convalescents "Hospital de la Misericordia (Madrid)"), that for foundlings, that for orphaned girls, the new women's retreat and the General Hospital.
The arrival of the Court caused the city's population to grow. This new situation required greater healthcare, and it seems that the pace of hospital creation was not sufficient to cover demand. This situation was already recognized by contemporary authors such as Bernardino de Obregón (founder of various health congregations). Bernardino later took charge of what would be the General Hospital (Hospital General de Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación y San Roque) located at the end of the San Jerónimo race. Bernardino himself died on August 6, 1599 in the General Hospital of a plague epidemic that hit Madrid.
During the reign of Philip II, a single government administration was created with the old brothers from the extinct hospitals: the governing board of the new General and Passion Hospital. In 1589 the rules and constitutions had already been drafted and approved by the Council of Castile. The hospitals that closed transferred their male patients to the General Hospital and their female patients to the Passion Hospital (Madrid). The demand for beds due to the quantity of patients, the possibility of uniting both hospitals, mixing the sexes, was denied by the Board in 1591. During the century and part of the hospital, both hospitals changed their name. The Hospital of the Annunciation of Our Lady received the name of the former poorhouse, to be called the General Hospital of Mercy.
As soon as patients began to arrive from other hospitals, the low number of beds that the General Hospital had began to become evident. The building was constrained on one end by the growing urban network, and by the wide Prado promenade on the other. Since the establishment of the Court, this promenade little by little became populated with palaces. The town of Madrid carried out purchase and sale operations for the houses located on the periphery of the building, operations that did not completely resolve the space problem. The Hospital Board soon decided to look for a suitable site for another General Hospital location, choosing a lot outside the fence.
The ideas of the prolific protomedic Cristóbal Pérez de Herrera influenced Philip II's vision of hospital management in Spanish cities.[11] Following a royal commission, he wrote in 1598 a book titled Discourses on the protection of the legitimate poor and reduction of the feigned,[12] in which he proposed certain solutions to avoid the multitude of hospitals and the confusing idea of healthcare that was practiced in them. One of the ideas finally adopted was the transformation of hospitals into simple shelters where health operations were no longer carried out, becoming the responsibility of the General Hospital. These shelters should be managed by foundations and ecclesiastical communities chosen by the King. In this way, charity was segregated from healthcare. The poor, beggars and orphans went to these asylum houses, hostels and lazarettos. The sick were heading to the hospital. This process of change was proposed in several stages, and 1599 was set as the deadline for it to be adopted throughout the kingdom.[3].
In his book, Cristóbal Pérez already provided a plan and elevation layout of what would be his model of the General Hospital.[12] This new building had considerable dimensions to be able to house many patients. The location he proposed was close to the royal road that led to the hermitage of the Virgin of Atocha. The site lacked previous buildings and was far from the population center.
Foundation of the new General Hospital: Hospitium Pauperum
Las obras de construcción comenzaron el 8 de septiembre de 1596. Se desconoce el arquitecto de esta obra inicial. El diseño era una planta rectangular dividida en cuatro naves perimetrales que iban a parar a cuatro patios interiores. Sus trazas se inspiraban en el Ospedale Maggiore de Milán, obra del arquitecto italiano Andrea Calamech"). De la misma forma se encuentran similitudes con la planta del Santo Spirito de Sassia") de Roma, lo que hace suponer que el arquitecto que asesoró la construcción de este primer edificio era conocedor de la arquitectura sanitaria italiana. También pudo inspirarse en la traza del Hospital de la Santa Cruz, en Toledo, un siglo anterior a éste. Se conoce la traza de este primer edificio por la existencia de un cuadro pintado en 1643 ubicado en las salas del Castillo de Manzanares el Real y que representa el Hospital desde el punto más alto del cerro de San Blas (hoy en los Jardines del Retiro). Las obras se financiaron inicialmente con varias fuentes como la herencia que dejó el cardenal Gaspar de Quiroga, arzobispo de Toledo y la Junta de Policía. La ejecución se debía realizar en dos fases, en la primera se garantizaba el servicio sanitario de la ciudad, en el segundo se proporcionaba una continuidad.
El 9 de junio de 1603 se comenzaron a trasladar los enfermos. La iglesia incluida en el grupo hospitalario fue acabada en 1620 y se trasladaron a ella los restos de Bernardino de Obregón. El plano de Teixeira elaborado en 1656 retrata el conjunto de instalaciones existentes en la calle de Atocha. Desde el instante en que se considera acabada la obra de este nuevo Hospital General, la afluencia de enfermos a él fue prácticamente constante. El hospital llegó a tener 17 salas, y cada una de ellas admitía 60 enfermos. Durante este periodo, que va desde la agregación de instituciones hasta comienzos del siglo , el rector del Hospital tuvo a su cargo la administración de las diferentes casas de hospitalidad, como son la Galera (vecina cárcel de mujeres), los Desamparados, la Casa de Locos y el Hospital de Convalecientes. La documentación administrativa de la época menciona al conjunto como: Hospital General de la Pasión y casas agregadas. El hospital a mediados del siglo atendía a casi cerca de 14 000 enfermos anuales.
La existencia de este Hospital General no evitó que se edificaran otros en Madrid, claro signo de que la unificación no llegó a completarse. Algunos de los no agregados prestaban asistencia sanitaria, como el caso del hospital de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción y de la Buena Dicha"), el hospital de San Andrés o de los Flamencos, el de Montserrat y el hospital de San Antonio de los Portugueses, aun cuando la competencia sanitaria era exclusiva del Hospital General según el modelo adoptado de Cristóbal Pérez de Herrera. Pese a que financiación del hospital era privada y gozaba de protección real, el balance financiero era negativo lo que obligaba a solicitar limosnas. Cada hospital creado disminuía la cuantía de limosnas que ingresaba el General. Además ninguna de las instituciones deseaba agregarse, ya que eso suponía una pérdida de autonomía, y debían pasar a depender de los exiguos fondos de la Real Congregación de Hospitales"). Por esta razón intentaron entorpecer todas las decisiones de la Junta de Hospitales.
El incremento de enfermos ponía constantemente en compromiso la capacidad del hospital, llevando los servicios asistenciales al límite. Las guerras que mantenía el imperio español hicieron que sus estancias se abarrotaran de soldados, siendo además creciente el número de habitantes de Madrid. Entre los compromisos del Hospital se encontraba el de abastecer de carne y alimentos a algunos de los hospicios que tenía a su cargo, por lo que el Hospital General se empobrecía cada vez más. Los gabinetes reales concedían para su financiación sisas "Sisa (impuesto)") realizadas sobre la venta de alimentos, no siendo suficiente. Se llegó a conceder en exclusiva los privilegios de la impresión de la Gramática de Nebrija. Otras fuentes de financiación fueron las rifas de objetos varios donados por particulares.
Renovation period: construction of a new building
The financial situation of the hospital was so serious in the middle of the century that Ferdinand VI had to act with his cabinet in the hospital. A treasurer was included to settle the debts incurred. With a view to creating a self-sustaining institution, efforts were made to increase the level of income and to achieve this, another attempt to group hospitals began in 1749, which was equally unsuccessful. Finally, the hospital became dependent on the Royal Council of Castile, being in charge of two superintendents: Pedro de Cevallos and Juan Lorenzo del Real"). It was decreed that the income from the newly built Alcalá bullring, the work of the architect Juan Bautista Sachetti and with a capacity of 12,000 people, would be managed by the General Hospital. The income from bullfights financed many general hospitals in Spain during the middle of the century. This means of financing generated income to the Hospital, until in the middle of the century it was reduced to the annual corrida de beneficencia").[13] In 1754 a decree had been drawn up by which the Royal Congregation of Hospitals") was created, assigning it the order to build the General Hospital of Madrid.
The Governing Board of this time was made up of an Elder Brother, twenty-four councilors, and about twenty laymen and ecclesiastics. The care of a doctor or surgeon was always accompanied by an apprentice. The period of the reign of Fernando VI was one of renewal and splendor in the Hospital. The income situation changed considerably upon the death of the monarch. With the money in the coffers, the Board decided to build a new building. The initial budget was spent on the purchase and acquisition of land adjacent to Atocha. Construction began in 1755 and financial problems constantly interrupted the work. All of this led the Board to elect José de Hermosilla as their director, commissioning him to build a double hospital for men and women. The style that he gave to the work is clearly of Herrerian influence, although other authors have found similarities between Hermosilla's work and that of Ferdinando Fuga in L'Albergo dei Poveri in the Kingdom of Naples (Hermosilla himself would have been Ferdinando's assistant).[3] Other possible inspirations investigated have been L'Ospedale di San Michele or the old Marina Hospital of Cartagena, the work of the engineer Sebastián Feringan. The architect Ventura Rodríguez also entered the competition for this project, and defended his proposal with the support of the Count of Miranda. It was finally rejected for being considered not very functional. In charge of the works commission was Juan de Goyeneche, among others.
The first layout of the General Hospital was shown to Fernando VI in person.[14] The Hermosilla project was chosen on February 29, 1756, the date on which the purchase of adjacent lands began simultaneously. Among the first lands requested were those of the lots occupied by the Hospital de la Pasión and La Galera. The Board created a commission dedicated to this task of purchasing land. One of the most delicate purchases was the one that corresponds to the , the place where the Town Hall kept the gigantones and the tarascas "Tarasca (mythological creature)"). To do this, another location with similar characteristics had to be acquired and exchanged. During this slow process of acquiring premises, Fernando VI died. The works, however, had begun with the protocol act of on March 1, 1758. The clearing works began to level the land, the excavation of trenches, the erection of perimeter walls, the construction of water tanks and snow wells. The water supply was a problem from the beginning, finally requesting the Five Major Guilds to use the tanks that existed on the Paseo de las Delicias "Paseo de las Delicias (Madrid)"). During these years, José de Hermosilla had total dedication to the project, renouncing the administrative positions he held in other areas of Madrid, including the position of director of Architecture of the Royal Academy of San Fernando. The financial problem was present during the beginning of the works, since the death of Fernando VI did not leave a municipal government with too many interests in the construction of an expensive hospital. The work, despite everything, continued and left behind a large debt.
Completion of the first phase
In 1780, part of the works of the first phase had already been completed. They corresponded to the Great Patio, and corresponded to the southernmost position of the hospital complex. This represented a quarter of what was initially planned in the Hermosilla project. The bays of the so-called wing of the Lost Child (nowadays the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid) were left half finished. The fountains inside the patio were placed in 1781, and stone from Colmenar de Oreja was used in their construction. This same year, the second phase of the project was restarted by Sabatini, just when he was dedicating himself to other projects in Madrid, such as the Puerta de Alcalá. Among the achievements of this period are a new pharmacy and an anatomical amphitheater.[17].
There are several plans of the General Hospital scattered in various European national museums, some of them (those in the Centre historique des Archives nationales Paris) date back to 1787. The problem for historians is that the plans are not signed. And some authors claim that these are Francisco Sabatini's modifications to José Hermosilla's designs.[18] The thirteen plans of the building are found in the Royal Palace Archive), the existing collection in the Centre historique des Archives nationales and the Bibliothèque nationale de Francia both in Paris, and the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. It is known that José de Hermosilla, at the request of the Board, requested in 1758 the execution of an architectural model made of pine wood with the aim of being able to understand and make the works of the immense complex of buildings more manageable. Among the travelers who visited the facilities of the General and Passion Hospital were the British philanthropist John Howard (considered a precursor of the defense of human rights) who mentioned as unique to this hospital that each patient had a bed. The Italian Antonio Conca). (1746-1820) visited Spain in 1793 and highlighted the quality of the services of the Hospital that was under construction.[19] In the same way, the Hospital project influenced other architects of the time.
The hospital's educational vocation began in 1701 when, during the reign of Philip V, it was equipped with a chair of Anatomy located in the basements. The first professor was Joseph Arboleda in 1703, who was replaced by Pedro Martín Martínez") in 1707. All of them were doctors at the hospital and had the minimum obligation to dismember anatomically for their students about 12 times a year. The Royal College of Surgeons of San Fernando was thus created and its journey was short due to the opposition of the protomedicato and the Royal Brotherhood of San Cosme and San Damián (guild of surgeons and bleeders). During the reign of Charles III, in 1762, the chair of Speculative Anatomy was created and Dr. Pedro Custodio was put in charge of it. In 1786, the procedures began to prepare a general surgery plan for the royal hospitals of the peninsula, creating the College of Surgery of the Royal Hospitals. A commission of doctors was created to evaluate the suitability of this College in the Hospital building. Doctors Antonio Gimbernat from Barcelona and Mariano Rivas from Cádiz examined the project. The report of this commission was delivered to Sabatini in 1783, as a result of which a proposal was drawn up for a building in which the students would reside and for this it was decided to free up the space occupied by the Hospital de la Pasión. The specific spaces created for the operation of the Royal College of Surgeons of San Carlos would be an amphitheater, the bookstore, a cabinet, and the laboratory. protomedicato and the Royal Board of Hospitals, but physically linked to the General and Passion Hospital.
Segregation of the hospital into two buildings
Las obras del nuevo edificio anexo para el Colegio de Cirugía comenzaron en 1831, causando el derribo del viejo Hospital de la Pasión y la construcción de un nuevo depósito de agua. A cargo de la obra estuvo el arquitecto Tiburcio Pérez Cuervo. Los problemas financieros hicieron que la obra se prolongase más de una década con innumerables paradas. El arquitecto-ingeniero Francisco Javier de Marietegui fue el encargado de finalizar la obra. Durante el periodo de construcción se había llevado a cabo una profunda reforma del sistema de enseñanza de la medicina. Al poco de ser acabado, y de comenzar sus cursos académicos, se solicitó al Hermano Mayor de la Junta que los alumnos pudieran visitar salas del Hospital para ser destinadas a clínicas. La petición no fue muy bien acogida por los médicos del Hospital que rechazaron su establecimiento. Pese a todo, se acabó tomando la decisión de separar parte del Hospital en un Clínico Universitario en el que se impartieran clases prácticas de medicina. El 26 de octubre de 1846 Isabel II firmó un real decreto de la creación de las salas necesarias a este fin. Fueron finalmente dos salas: la Trinidad y Atocha. Esta decisión dio inicio al Hospital Clínico de San Carlos,[4] que se encontraba ubicado en el interior del edificio del viejo Hospital General. Esta decisión generó gran polémica entre los médicos del nosocomio, enfrentamiento que se extendió por el mundo médico de la época tal y como lo reflejan las cartas a revistas médicas de la época (la Gaceta Médica y el Boletín de Farmacia, Cirugía y Medicina).
El edificio inacabado del Hospital General se desdobló el 16 de agosto de 1859, fecha en la que el arquitecto de la Diputación Provincial de Madrid, Bruno Fernández de los Ronderos recibió encargo de la Junta de Beneficencia para redactar el proyecto que permitiera segregar el ala del Niño Perdido y prolongar la calle de Santa Isabel "Calle de Santa Isabel (Madrid)") hasta la ronda de Atocha. El encargo municipal a Bruno se debió, por una parte, a que la incipiente facultad de Medicina madrileña tenía necesidad de disponer de la totalidad del espacio del ala del Niño Perdido. Por otra parte, la construcción del Hospital de la Princesa inaugurado el 23 de abril de 1857 bajo dirección del arquitecto Aníbal Álvarez Bouquel reforzaba al Hospital General de Atocha como equipamiento asistencial de Madrid, y estaba dentro de una nueva política gubernamental que pretendía crear cuatro establecimientos hospitalarios de distrito con capacidad para 500 o 600 enfermos cada uno. Por último, el plan de Ensanche de Madrid, redactado a partir de 1857 por el arquitecto e ingeniero de Caminos Carlos María de Castro, preveía la apertura de la calle de Santa Isabel, rompiendo el ala del Niño Perdido en su contacto con el edificio definido en torno al patio grande del proyecto de Hermosilla. Esta calle discurriría por delante de su fachada norte hasta desembocar frente a la nueva estación de ferrocarril del Mediodía. Esta fachada norte, inacabada y pendiente de resolución desde 1805, sería, en consecuencia, la fachada principal del edificio al que quedaba reducido finalmente el Hospital General.
Other hospitals appear in Madrid: Ensanche
The mayor of Madrid Juan Álvarez Mendizábal dedicated part of his efforts to creating four more hospitals in the outskirts. On February 22, 1852, a letter was published in the Bulletin of Pharmacy, Surgery and Medicine in which it was announced that the old hospital would have to share its existence with four others. One of the first was the Hospital de La Princesa. Despite this, the General Hospital, which was beginning to cease to be so, had in the same building two rooms dedicated to the San Carlos Clinic (faculty of Medicine). The situation was quite complex: two hospitals represented a greater expense. Added to this was the precarious financial situation that delayed the payment of salaries for health personnel. The hospital had a large cemetery located nearby (along what is currently the Ronda de Valencia). The sale of land in this cemetery generated income for several decades. Bruno Fernández's reform included not only the opening of Santa Isabel Street and the streets surrounding the Hospital, but also the plastering of the façade and the demolition of the old Hospital church that was in service from 1620 to 1876. The final result can be seen in the General Plan of Madrid by Ibánez de Ibero of 1875. Over time the College of Surgery building would be reconnected with the Hospital through a gallery glass located on the main floor level.
On December 28, 1860, Bruno presented his project to extend Santa Isabel Street, the segregation of the Lost Child wing, a proposal for facades, the demolition of the old Hospital de los Austrias and the division of part of the freed land into building plots. His report on the project provides information on the use that the General Hospital facilities had at that time. On October 10, 1843, the Royal College of Surgery of San Carlos would change its name to the Faculty of Medical Sciences, settling in the new building built on the site occupied by the aforementioned Hospital de la Pasión. January 1904. In 1911, when Amalio Gimeno y Cabañas was minister, a commission was appointed to create a new Faculty of Medicine, the site chosen being the sites of the future University City of Madrid. The Clinical Hospital of San Carlos de Atocha would not reach its centenary, since just when it was going to be moved to the University City, the Civil War broke out and placed the new Clinic building on the front line. At the end of the war, the Clinic was destroyed, and the transfer from the Atocha Hospital had to be postponed.
In 1861 the regulations for the teaching of practitioners and midwives were approved, making the General Hospital a Free School of Medicine. In 1868 the glorious revolution interrupted the process of transformation into a teaching institution by suppressing the San Carlos Clinic by decree. This clinic would not open its doors again until 1875.[6] In 1861 the Madrid City Council acquired most of the land that was adjacent to Atocha Street, and houses were built there around a square (which is currently called Sánchez Bustillo).
The Provincial Hospital of Madrid
At the beginning of the century Madrid had two large hospitals, the General de Atocha and the Princesa (the old one, on Areneros street). The existence of two more had been planned. The Atocha Hospital building was unfinished, and any urban planning review of the area led to the eternal debate surrounding its existence. It was called the Provincial Hospital of Madrid at the beginning of the century.[22] During the Second Republic, the North-South axis in Castellana would be strengthened, which would turn the Atocha roundabout into an area of intense road traffic during the 1950s and 1960s.[7] The Atocha hospitals suffered social unrest during March 24 and 25, 1931, in which students from the Central University of Madrid confronted public force in the Faculty of Medicine. A civil guard and a student die in the fray. The student strike spread throughout Spain coinciding with the beginning of the electoral campaign for the municipal elections.
After the coup d'état of 1936, the General Hospital received the first wounded from the siege of the Cuartel de la Montaña. Shortly after, the hospital was in the hands of a committee controlled by the Communist Party.[23] During the defense of Madrid the Hospital received numerous impacts from the aerial bombardments that were carried out over the area, specifically the most intense attacks on November 15, 1936. It continued in operation depending on the Ministry of War with the name Clinical Hospital No. 4. At the end of the war it was not possible to transfer the New Clinic to Moncloa for having been left in a state of ruin.
State of abandonment: rehabilitation and transformation into a museum
In the middle of the century, the Central Sanitary City came into operation (called at that time as Provincial Sanitary City "Francisco Franco", inaugurated on July 18, 1968), which slowly compiled the sanitary services that for almost three hundred years had been monopolized by the Atocha Provincial Hospital.[8] This Sanitary City would eventually become the Gregorio Marañón General University Hospital. The General Hospital was rapidly losing powers, and the building was also exposed to severe environmental degradation caused by the existence of a controversial scalextric (inaugurated in 1968 and demolished between 1985 and 1986) located nearby.[7] The architects Jerónimo Junquera") and Estalinao Pérez Pita") were commissioned to adapt the bays and adapt them to the Documentation Center. A study carried out in 1969 by the municipal architect Fernando Moreno Barberá recommended its demolition based on the value of its land, the little architectural value it would have and the high cost of its rehabilitation. [24] Faced with this threat, Fernando Chueca Goitia a few months later presented a report to the Royal Academy of History in which he requested that the building be classified as a Monument-Historical-Artistic "Asset of Cultural Interest (Spain)"). The same was requested by another report presented a few months later before the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando by Luis Moya and Luis Menéndez Pidal. These actions prevented the Provincial Hospital building from being definitively demolished in this period of development.
In 1974, the director of Fine Arts, Joaquín Pérez Villanueva, on behalf of the Ministry of Education, began the procedures for purchasing the building from the Labor Mutual Funds. The acquisition negotiations ended in 1976 with the purchase of the building by royal decree of 1977.[9] The building would become property of the Ministry of Education, housing different services and museums of the State. Initially, several proposals were considered, such as the Museum of the Spanish People, a Theater Museum, a Museum of Artistic Reproductions, etc. Under the direction of architect Carlos Fernández Cuenca, some partial repairs to the building began in 1980, with Antonio Fernández Alba finally being in charge of the rehabilitation works. The improvement of the façade coincided with a general rehabilitation project for the Atocha roundabout; The scalextric was dismantled, the entrances to the station were expanded and ornamental elements such as the Fuente de la Alcachofa "Fuente de la Alcachofa (Madrid)") were placed in a roundabout.
On May 26, 1986, with all renovations completed, an Art Center was opened in the building. Despite all the exhibitions, conferences, film screenings..., it did not meet the expectations initially set. On September 10, 1992, Kings Juan Carlos and Sofía inaugurated the permanent collection of the Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum.
• - San Carlos Faculty of Medicine.
• - History of General Medicine in Spain.
References
[1] ↑ a b Espinosa de los Monteros y Abadía, Antonio (1769). Plano topográphico de la Villa y Corte de Madrid al Excmo. Sr. Conde de Aranda, Capitán General de los Exércitos y Presidente del Consejo [Material cartográfico] / Dibujado y gravado por Don Antonio Espinosa de los Monteros y Abadía en 1769. Madrid. ISSN BVPB20100055816 |issn= incorrecto (ayuda).: https://es.wikipedia.org//portal.issn.org/resource/issn/BVPB20100055816
[2] ↑ AAVV (1991). Ministerio de Cultura, ed. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Primera edición). Madrid.
[3] ↑ a b c d Muñoz Alonso, María Dolores (2010). De hospital a museo: las sucesivas transformaciones de un hospital inacabado ; el Hospital General de Madrid (Primera edición). Madrid: Tesis Doctoral, E.T.S. Arquitectura (UPM). Consultado el 10 de mayo de 2013.: http://oa.upm.es/7203/
[4] ↑ a b Pérez Peña, Fernando (2005). Visión Net, ed. Los últimos clínicos de San Carlos: estampas y vivencias de la Facultad de San Carlos (Primera edición). Madrid.
[5] ↑ Marañón, Gregorio (1967): El pasado, el presente y el porvenir del Hospital General de Madrid.
[6] ↑ a b c Sáiz Carrero, Ataulfo (2006). «Historia del Hospital General o Provincial de Madrid, Cuna de un Servicio de Urología Centenario». Arch. Esp. Urol 59 (7): 663-67. |fechaacceso= requiere |url= (ayuda).
[7] ↑ a b c Arias Sierra, Pablo (2003). Universidad de Sevilla, ed. Periferias y nueva ciudad.: El problema del paisaje en los procesos de dispersión urbana (Primera edición). Sevilla: Serie Arquitectura nº 25.
[9] ↑ a b Real Decreto 3531/1977 publicado en el Boletín Oficial del Estado el 30 de enero de 1978.
[10] ↑ García Barreno, Pedro (1996). «El Hospital General de Madrid. Su Primer Reglamento (Parte I)». Revista Arbor CLII (603): 55-112.
[11] ↑ Moreno Gallego, Valentín (2002). Letras de molde y letras de pretensión en el Doctor Pérez de Herrera, en Reales Sitios: Revista del Patrimonio Nacional, nº 154, 2002 , p. 21-33. Patrimonio Nacional.
[12] ↑ a b Pérez de Herrera, Cristóbal (1598). Discursos del amparo de los legitimos pobres y reduccion de los fingidos, y de la fundación y principio de los albergues destos Reynos, y amparo de la milicia dellos (Primera edición). Madrid.: https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_57hNboBcWSgC
[13] ↑ John Earl Varey, Charles J. Davis (1997). Los corrales de comedias y los hospitales de Madrid, 1615-1849. Madrid: Támesis.
[14] ↑ Sambricio, Carlos (1959). «El Hospital General de Atocha en Madrid, un gran edificio en busca de autor: las intervenciones de Ventura Rodríguez, José de Hermosilla y Francisco Sabatini». Arquitectura (Madrid).
[15] ↑ Copia del plano de planta ubicado en el Archivo General de Palacio, signatura 349.
[16] ↑ Sambricio, Carlos (1986). «Francisco Sabatini, arquitecto madrileño: el Hospital General de Atocha». "Madrid no construido: imágenes arquitectónicas de la ciudad prometida" (Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid). |fechaacceso= requiere |url= (ayuda).
[18] ↑ Ortega Vidal, Javier (1993). «La arquitectura dibujada en el gabinete Sabatini». Francisco Sabatini 1721-1797 / La arquitectura como metáfora del poder (Madrid: Electa España).
[19] ↑ Antonio Conca y Alcaraz, (1797), Descrizione odeporica della Spagna, Parma, Volumen 4.
[20] ↑ a b Núñez Olarte, Juan Manuel (1999). CSIC, ed. El Hospital General de Madrid en el siglo XVIII: Actividad médico-quirúrgica. Cuadernos Galileo de la Historia de la Ciencia (Primera edición). Madrid: 19.
[21] ↑ Imprenta Real, ed. (1795). Ordenanzas que S.M. manda observar para la enseñanza de la medicina práctica en las Cátedras nuevamente establecidas en el Hospital General de Madrid (Primera edición).
[22] ↑ Valladares Roldán, Ricardo (1979). Diputación Provincial de Madrid, ed. Hospital Provincial de Madrid (Primera edición). Madrid. ISBN 84-500-3170-2.
[23] ↑ Pérez Peña, Fernando (2005). Exilio y depuración política en la Facultad de Medicina de San Carlos (Primera edición). Madrid: Visión-Net.
[24] ↑ Cabañas Bravo, Miguel (1989). «Del Hospital General al Centro de Arte Reina Sofía: Recorrido por los problemas de un edificio inacabado de la Ilustración». El arte en tiempo de Carlos III. (IV Jornadas de Arte. Departamento de Historia del Arte del CEH del CSIC) (Alpuerto-CSIC). ISBN 84-381-0139-9.
corralón de la villa
pulling ropes
Espinosa's plan, from 1769, already contains details of the plan and distribution of the main elements of the construction. It is possible that Hermosilla himself participated in the configuration of the Madrid General Plan.[1] In it you can see how the planned set of buildings had a church, which had to be modified from the initial design due to stability problems. The General Plan of Madrid from 1769 shows how the building complex has its entrance at the end of Atocha Street (in front of what was the San Carlos Cinema). The floor plan of the building was made up of a square (Quadro Grande) that faced Atocha Street, and a rear rectangle (called Patio Grande). This rear space, dedicated to the accommodation of the infirmaries, currently corresponds to the Reina Sofía Museum. The building brought together men and women in clearly separate rooms, with more floor area dedicated to men than to women (two thirds of the admissions to the General Hospital were men).[15].
Carlos III was proclaimed king in Madrid on September 11, 1759. In December he entered Madrid. A General Hospital was found half-built and in a very lamentable financial situation. The first attempts at reactivation by the new monarch emerged in January 1760 by creating a new ordinance. In it it established the number of doctors at nine, six dedicated to the General Hospital and three to the neighbor of the Passion. During the reign of Carlos III the area was modified, the botanical garden (on the Paseo del Prado) and the Royal Observatory (on the nearby San Blas hill) were built in the vicinity of the Hospital. To finance the continuity of the works it was necessary to fix part of the tobacco and lottery taxes (a concession that was maintained until the reign of Charles IV). Francisco Sabatini advised the Board on several occasions in making decisions about the medium-term construction strategy, specifically he advised the construction of more pavilions.[16] The project always received financing below its expenses, which meant that the project did not reach its definitive completion. Hermosilla was dismissed on April 19, 1769 in favor of Sabatini, by decision by vote of the Board. A few years later (1776) Hermosilla died in Leganés without seeing the finished project.
In 1796 the last buildings on the Lost Child Street wing were demolished. The works had begun years before in the area called Patio Grande (current museum). In 1781 there were already eight hundred beds in service in the Patio Grande, which together with the Lost Child wing made up more than a thousand beds in total. Carlos III approved that part of the profits of the Royal Lottery be dedicated to financing the Hospital (this amounted to about 100,000 reais annually). The work under the direction of Sabatini had a better progress thanks to royal support. During this construction period the small capacity of the cemetery had to be solved. Starting in 1773, it was necessary to demolish the old Hospital and transfer the patients to the new facilities. The first affected were those who were in La Galera. Interruptions of works due to non-payments were frequent; Through credits granted by the crown, some of the strikes were resolved. These situations generated tensions in the Board, in which Sabatini himself had to mediate. In 1779, work began on the roof of the Patio Grande infirmaries. There was no shortage of problems such as the collapse of a vault when it was removed. A year later a fire broke out at the works that affected a large part of the structures. Despite all the disagreements, the first phase of the works could be successfully completed.
After a year of operation, the School of Theoretical-Practical Surgery was created in open competition with the College. This School, the idea of Dr. Josef Iberti"),[21] required a new remodeling of spaces in the Hospital. The works fell under the direction of Ignacio Haan, a disciple of Sabatini, perhaps due to the illness of his tutor. King Charles IV himself was interested in the evolution of this new chair. The first classes of the General School of Medicine began on January 2, 1796.
After the death of Francisco Sabatini, Juan de Villanueva was the architect in charge of the works of the General Hospital and the Passion Hospital. The works remained incomplete, with more than half of what Hermosilla initially designed missing. Juan de Villanueva was at the peak of his career when he was elected. However, the period in which he took charge of the Hospital works was one of great economic hardship, and the works could not evolve as intended. The architects Blas de Mariategui") and his brother Vicente Sancho collaborated with Villanueva. When Blas requested his resignation from the position in 1805, Silvestre Pérez was in charge of the works. The unfinished works at the beginning of the century left a hospital complex that actually consisted of three: the General Antiguo, the Passion and the galleries of the new hospital (about to celebrate the centenary of its beginning). The Hospital Board considered the completion of the Hermosilla project impossible, mainly due to financial problems and the political situation generated by the French invasion. This decision was important since from this moment on the hospital would no longer be under construction and would only undergo occasional maintenance.
The situation at the hospital worsened during the first decade of the century due to the political situation generated by the French invasion. During this period, only rooms and spaces were reconditioned, with no relevant construction in the hospital complex. During the period of French invasion, on June 8, 1810, King Joseph Bonaparte decreed that the General and Passion Hospital would serve as a military hospital for French troops. This meant that the Madrid patients hospitalized there had to be accommodated in other institutions. The consequence of the war for the General Hospital was a lower income from rents. Despite everything, the Hospital suffered an increase in patients during this period, to the point of overflowing its capacity. Situation that caused the women to be evacuated from the Hospital de la Pasión, relocating men's beds in said hospital. The architect of this period was Silvestre Pérez.
In 1812, the French occupation of Retiro turned the area into an artillery barracks where magazines were located. These exploded, affecting the Buen Retiro Palace. El Retiro is close to the hospital, so the Board requested to use the tiles from the old palace. At the end of the war, the hospital had no funds except for maximum emergencies. This situation of hardship affected the Hospital until 1820. Since the beginning of the activity, the clergy had lost prominence on the Board of Directors of the General and Passion Hospital, which since the first decades of the century was already directed by a layman. Its services were attended by about sixty doctors.
The building appears well portrayed in the 1:432 scale topographic model of the city of Madrid, which León Gil de Palacio made in 1831 next to the Atocha Gate "Puerta de Atocha (monument)"). The occupancy of the Hospital in the middle of the century was fifteen hundred beds distributed in 24 rooms with almost nine hundred men and six hundred women. In 1819 the Board appealed to Fernando VII to have a building built to house the College of Surgeons outside the General Hospital. The decision was to occupy the back of the Passion building on the lots on Santa Isabel Street "Calle Santa Isabel (Madrid)"), next to the water tank. In 1830 it was decided that the College of Surgeons would be located in the indicated area. The designs for this new building had been made a year earlier by Isidro González Velázquez.
corralón de la villa
pulling ropes
Espinosa's plan, from 1769, already contains details of the plan and distribution of the main elements of the construction. It is possible that Hermosilla himself participated in the configuration of the Madrid General Plan.[1] In it you can see how the planned set of buildings had a church, which had to be modified from the initial design due to stability problems. The General Plan of Madrid from 1769 shows how the building complex has its entrance at the end of Atocha Street (in front of what was the San Carlos Cinema). The floor plan of the building was made up of a square (Quadro Grande) that faced Atocha Street, and a rear rectangle (called Patio Grande). This rear space, dedicated to the accommodation of the infirmaries, currently corresponds to the Reina Sofía Museum. The building brought together men and women in clearly separate rooms, with more floor area dedicated to men than to women (two thirds of the admissions to the General Hospital were men).[15].
Carlos III was proclaimed king in Madrid on September 11, 1759. In December he entered Madrid. A General Hospital was found half-built and in a very lamentable financial situation. The first attempts at reactivation by the new monarch emerged in January 1760 by creating a new ordinance. In it it established the number of doctors at nine, six dedicated to the General Hospital and three to the neighbor of the Passion. During the reign of Carlos III the area was modified, the botanical garden (on the Paseo del Prado) and the Royal Observatory (on the nearby San Blas hill) were built in the vicinity of the Hospital. To finance the continuity of the works it was necessary to fix part of the tobacco and lottery taxes (a concession that was maintained until the reign of Charles IV). Francisco Sabatini advised the Board on several occasions in making decisions about the medium-term construction strategy, specifically he advised the construction of more pavilions.[16] The project always received financing below its expenses, which meant that the project did not reach its definitive completion. Hermosilla was dismissed on April 19, 1769 in favor of Sabatini, by decision by vote of the Board. A few years later (1776) Hermosilla died in Leganés without seeing the finished project.
In 1796 the last buildings on the Lost Child Street wing were demolished. The works had begun years before in the area called Patio Grande (current museum). In 1781 there were already eight hundred beds in service in the Patio Grande, which together with the Lost Child wing made up more than a thousand beds in total. Carlos III approved that part of the profits of the Royal Lottery be dedicated to financing the Hospital (this amounted to about 100,000 reais annually). The work under the direction of Sabatini had a better progress thanks to royal support. During this construction period the small capacity of the cemetery had to be solved. Starting in 1773, it was necessary to demolish the old Hospital and transfer the patients to the new facilities. The first affected were those who were in La Galera. Interruptions of works due to non-payments were frequent; Through credits granted by the crown, some of the strikes were resolved. These situations generated tensions in the Board, in which Sabatini himself had to mediate. In 1779, work began on the roof of the Patio Grande infirmaries. There was no shortage of problems such as the collapse of a vault when it was removed. A year later a fire broke out at the works that affected a large part of the structures. Despite all the disagreements, the first phase of the works could be successfully completed.
After a year of operation, the School of Theoretical-Practical Surgery was created in open competition with the College. This School, the idea of Dr. Josef Iberti"),[21] required a new remodeling of spaces in the Hospital. The works fell under the direction of Ignacio Haan, a disciple of Sabatini, perhaps due to the illness of his tutor. King Charles IV himself was interested in the evolution of this new chair. The first classes of the General School of Medicine began on January 2, 1796.
After the death of Francisco Sabatini, Juan de Villanueva was the architect in charge of the works of the General Hospital and the Passion Hospital. The works remained incomplete, with more than half of what Hermosilla initially designed missing. Juan de Villanueva was at the peak of his career when he was elected. However, the period in which he took charge of the Hospital works was one of great economic hardship, and the works could not evolve as intended. The architects Blas de Mariategui") and his brother Vicente Sancho collaborated with Villanueva. When Blas requested his resignation from the position in 1805, Silvestre Pérez was in charge of the works. The unfinished works at the beginning of the century left a hospital complex that actually consisted of three: the General Antiguo, the Passion and the galleries of the new hospital (about to celebrate the centenary of its beginning). The Hospital Board considered the completion of the Hermosilla project impossible, mainly due to financial problems and the political situation generated by the French invasion. This decision was important since from this moment on the hospital would no longer be under construction and would only undergo occasional maintenance.
The situation at the hospital worsened during the first decade of the century due to the political situation generated by the French invasion. During this period, only rooms and spaces were reconditioned, with no relevant construction in the hospital complex. During the period of French invasion, on June 8, 1810, King Joseph Bonaparte decreed that the General and Passion Hospital would serve as a military hospital for French troops. This meant that the Madrid patients hospitalized there had to be accommodated in other institutions. The consequence of the war for the General Hospital was a lower income from rents. Despite everything, the Hospital suffered an increase in patients during this period, to the point of overflowing its capacity. Situation that caused the women to be evacuated from the Hospital de la Pasión, relocating men's beds in said hospital. The architect of this period was Silvestre Pérez.
In 1812, the French occupation of Retiro turned the area into an artillery barracks where magazines were located. These exploded, affecting the Buen Retiro Palace. El Retiro is close to the hospital, so the Board requested to use the tiles from the old palace. At the end of the war, the hospital had no funds except for maximum emergencies. This situation of hardship affected the Hospital until 1820. Since the beginning of the activity, the clergy had lost prominence on the Board of Directors of the General and Passion Hospital, which since the first decades of the century was already directed by a layman. Its services were attended by about sixty doctors.
The building appears well portrayed in the 1:432 scale topographic model of the city of Madrid, which León Gil de Palacio made in 1831 next to the Atocha Gate "Puerta de Atocha (monument)"). The occupancy of the Hospital in the middle of the century was fifteen hundred beds distributed in 24 rooms with almost nine hundred men and six hundred women. In 1819 the Board appealed to Fernando VII to have a building built to house the College of Surgeons outside the General Hospital. The decision was to occupy the back of the Passion building on the lots on Santa Isabel Street "Calle Santa Isabel (Madrid)"), next to the water tank. In 1830 it was decided that the College of Surgeons would be located in the indicated area. The designs for this new building had been made a year earlier by Isidro González Velázquez.