Barcelona and the 1515 epidemic. The new Sant Cristòfol hospital at the Les Drassanes Gate
Publication date of the document: 23/11/2021
Year of the original document: 1515
Coinciding with the 17th Barcelona History Congress, entitled ‘City Residents and Health. An Essential Struggle’, on 24-26 November 2021, the Historical Archives of the City present two unpublished documents about the new Sant Cristòfol hospital, dated 1515.
The new Sant Cristòfol was a temporary hospital, created in the context of the 1515 summer-autumn epidemic. It seems to have been operational from June 1515, when a house outside the city walls was purchased, next to the Drassanes Gate, until the end of the year, or at least until November. The new Sant Cristòfol hospital was created at the behest of the City Councillors, who commissioned the administrators of Hospital de la Santa Creu to run the project.
After its closure, or a little beforehand, in November 1515, those same administrators asked the Council for a contribution of 500 pounds to cover the major expenses incurred in the management of the facility, as they had been promised at the start of the operation. They had a lot of trouble in getting the money, which was finally paid over the next year and a half, and then only partially (they received 300 pounds).
The Hospital de Sant Cristòfol is an example of how things were done at that time. During epidemics, temporary places were established to house sick people. After the danger had passed, the sites were either dismantled or used for other purposes. This is why there is so little trace of this hospital remaining. However, what is certain is that it existed, because the petition and the accounts report have been conserved and show the activity and the real costs involved.
In reality, these are two complementary documents, a petition and the attached accounts report, which the Council received together from the General Hospital’s administrators. At a given moment, they were separated and conserved in different document series (Works and Miscellanea). Both documents must date back to a little before 28 November 1515, according to the Registre de Deliberacions (CCAM, 02.01/1B.II-42, f.24v-25r).
The petition was presented to the City Council by the administrators of the Hospital General de la Santa Creu, requesting payment for all the expenses they had incurred in the creation and maintenance of Hospital de Sant Cristòfol. The hospital was created on the orders of the Councillors, in order to provide a solution to the epidemic. The administrators were initially reluctant, because they were aware of the costs involved and the difficult financial situation of the General Hospital, which would, in principle, have to produce the funds to pay for it, but the Councillors assured them that all the expenses would be paid with municipal funds. The document speaks of an accounts report accompanying the petition, detailing the costs.
The accounts report lists the expenses involved in creating the Hospital de Sant Cristòfol. The accounts are exceptionally detailed. They specify the purchase of the baker Eulària Diega’s house and the salaries of the master builders, carpenters, labourers, stonemasons and stone breakers who renovated and adapted the building in June 1515; the cost to purchase the mattress cloth and straw to make the patients’ beds, construction materials for a shed in front of the hospital door, and the wages of all the staff, ecclesiastical and secular, who served at the hospital during those five months (maids, rector, passionists, etc.). It also lists the cost of food for the patients (wheat, hens, sheep, wine, oil), as well as medicine and firewood, among others, and even the piece of land that was purchased next to the hospital for use as a graveyard, and the stipends they had to sell in order to pay for everything.
Since its beginnings, the Consell de Cent [Council of One Hundred] had some powers in regard to health, especially in terms of prevention, through measures for maintaining healthy, hygienic conditions in public spaces, participating in the running of hospitals and specific actions for preventing illness during epidemics. During the Bourbon era, the documents referring to these matters have their own section, Healthcare, but for the Consell de Cent period, they are distributed in various places in the municipal archives. One reference series is the Registre de Deliberacions [Record of Debates] (CCAM, 02.01/1B.II), which contains the minutes and agreements taken by the Councillors, the Trentenari [Council of Thirty], the Consell de Cent jury members and other committees. We also have to consult Miscellanea (CCAM, 02.01/1C.V), which contains documents referring to the city’s various hospitals (Hospital de la Santa Creu, Hospital dels Orfes, Hospital de Santa Marta and Hosptial de Pere Desvilar) and the management of epidemics from the 14th to the 18th century. Finally, the old Consell del Cent ledger (CCAM, 08/1B.XXV) also contains very interesting data on everyday life during the various epidemics suffered by the city.
Més informació:
Transcription of the 1515 petition:
Transcription of the Accounts Report, 1515:
17th Barcelona History Congress:
‘Rúbriques de Bruniquer’ digital resource:
Inventory of the Registre de Deliberacions document series:
Index to volumes 39 to 109 (1501-1600) Registre de Deliberacions document series:
Inventory of the Miscellanea document series:
Inventory of the Dietari de l'Antic Consell document series:
