Fundación Casa Ducal de Medinaceli

Hospital de San Juan Bautista

Hospital de San Juan Bautista

" one of the aptest and most excellent buildings there is in Europe, and one of the most compliant with the rules and observations of true Architecture; [.] so say the foreigners who come to see it as one of the wonders of the World ". Nicolás de Vergara the younger (1603).

The "first totally classical building in Castile", also known as the Hospital Tavera or Hospital de Afuera on account of its location outside the city walls opposite the Bisagra gate, was designed in the 16th century for a dual purpose: as a hospital for "those afflicted with different illnesses" and as the pantheon of its founder, Cardinal Juan Pardo Tavera. Its construction, begun in 1540, ushered in a programme of renewal in architecture and town planning which the circle of humanists surrounding Emperor Charles V devised in order to adapt Toledo's image to its role as the imperial capital.


The Hospital de San Juan Bautista, better known as the Hospital Tavera, is the most important building of the Toledan classical Renaissance style. It was initially built as a general hospital during the most lively and cosmopolitan period of the imperial city...

This building began to be erected in 1541 on the instructions of Cardinal Juan Tavera, in a unique and fleeting ideological and artistic environment. This makes it particularly important to distinguish between the project as conceived by the founder and the final building...

Descubra un museo de pintura y artes decorativas de los siglos XV al XVIII instalado en la zona más noble del antiguo hospital

Hospital de San Juan Bautista, Duque de Lerma, 2 - 45003 Toledo - Telf: (+34) 925 22 04 51 - Fax: (+34) 925 25 07 82