Artistic landscape and visual memory: the order of the hospital in the crown of Castile

Abstract

The prominence of the Military Orders in the war developed in the Iberian peninsula against Islam hadn’t only political or economic consequences, but also artistic ones that determined the possession of an important architectural heritage of an urban and rural nature. These institutions, and particularly the Hospital order, participated in the geo-strategic organization of large territories and in the elevation of religious buildings -churches and hermitages-, residential -castles and palace houses-, economic – wineries, mills…- and hospitals. Buildings used for several needs: the residence of the master and commander, devotional practice or medical care for their populations. A heritage, important in number and volume, that defines the monumental landscape of the crown of Castile in the medieval and modern centuries. A heritage that was not always relevant at a qualitative level because this has prevailed a practicality over aesthetic peculiarity, economy over excess ant the use of a common artistic language over novelty. All these reasons have influenced its fragmentary preservation. Recovering his confused memory is a priority objective of this text.