The portal of the former Royal Hospital of Santiago de Compostela, built in the Plateresque style, was created between 1519 and 1520 by the masters Guillén Colás and Martín de Blas1. It stands out for its richly detailed decoration, whose symbols and imagery recall the building’s past as a hospital, now converted into the hotel Hostal dos Reis Católicos.
The symbol of the hospital, the Jerusalem cross potent, appears twice on the portal: above a window located over the main doorway on the third floor of the building, and in the tympanum2. In the spandrels are medallions depicting the Catholic Monarchs, founders of the institution3.
The façade is also decorated with sculptures of saints associated with healing, in keeping with the building’s medical function. Among them are Mary Magdalene, shown with the jar of balm with which she anointed Christ’s feet; Saint Catherine of Alexandria, identified by the spiked wheel of her martyrdom; and Saint Lucy, who holds a plate with two eyes, symbolizing her association with the healing of eye diseases4.
- Photos and main text by Sabela Nóvoa Gómez moc.liamg|im9211ebas#| (January 2026)
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Bibliography:
- Aracil, C. (2013). Elementos heráldicos en el Hostal de los Reyes Católicos – Santiago de Compostela-. Anuario brigantino, 36, 369-380
- Carro Otero, X. (1998). Materiais para unha historia da medicina galega. Tomo II. Consellería de Sanidade e Servicios Sociais (55-59)
- Grande Nieto, V. (2016). Métrica y Arquitectura del Hospital de los Reyes Católicos en Santiago de Compostela. Cuadernos de Estudios Gallegos, 63 (129), 287-342