The charity of the Order of Santiago at the end of the Middle Ages

Abstract

This chapter examines the material reality of the hospital of Alarcon, drawing on both written sources and on an archaeological survey supported by new technologies. The Order of Calatrava and its subsidiaries, along with the Order of Santiago, were the most important military orders in the region, and both carried out hospitality and care functions alongside their military duties. The Order of Santiago pursued the vocation of hospitality, providing support both for its own brothers and also for society at large through two vocations: assistance and redemption. The specific characteristics of the project to reconstruct the hospital of Alarcon reveal rich and interesting information in terms of the historical reality of the Order of Santiago during the final years of the Middle Ages. The hospital of Alarcon was one of the few hospitals of the order which existed at the end of the Middle Ages, and it played an important role in all the processes.