Antiguo Hospital de San Juan de Dios

In the 15th century, a large hospital called San Juan de Dios was built in the city of Jaén. Thanks to private donations and the patronage of the Municipal Council, the institution eventually became one of the longest-established hospitals in the history of Spain, as well as the oldest in Jaén. As the centuries went by, it gained the merit and honour of becoming a model of health care that was repeated the length and breadth of the Spanish kingdom.

Situated around a landscaped Renaissance courtyard, with arches on Tuscan stone columns in the ground-floor cloister and Ionic columns in the upper one, are the assembly hall (the old chapel from 1771, rebuilt after a fire in 1916), the archive and library with a room for researchers, and a café-bar in the artistic basement. The glazed gallery on the first floor contains the director's office, exhibition rooms, the management and secretariat offices, and a meeting room; the top floor is given over to offices, lecture halls and meeting rooms.