The building of the Hospital Tavera, on the outskirts of Toledo (calle Duque de Lerma), was started in 1541 by the Master Builder of Toledo’s Cathedral, Alonso de Covarrubias, with a twofold purpose: “to serve as a hospital for ‘those afflicted by various ailments’ and as the pantheon for its founder, Cardinal Juan Pardo Tavera, Archbishop of Toledo, Grand Inquisitor, and regent of the realm in Emperor Charles V’s absence”1. Now the Renaissance buildings of the hospital host an archive, a school and a museum of the Ducal House of Medinaceli Foundation. Cardenal Tavera was buried in the funerary chapel which contains, as well as the sacristy, some El Greco’s paintings.
The old Pharmacy
Hospital Library and Archive
Some rooms of the Ducal House of Medinaceli Foundation
The funerary chapel with Cardinal Tavera sarcophagus
The sacristy with Cardinal Tavera’s portrait by El Greco
- Photos by Luca Borghi @ (August 2014), courtesy of the Museum’s direction
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