2023-11-25 23:41:43
Barcelona« Medal with the anagram of Jesus Christ, tied with a braided cord of beige, orange and green thread. Infant not identified, but could be Nicolau, who was left on October 14, 1435». The presumed Nicolau, a child abandoned at the door of the old Hospital de la Santa Creu in Barcelona by his family – due to the impossibility of supporting him, because they did not want him or because of the death of his parents -, no one ever claimed him . The pendant that served as his identification is still guarded, 588 years later, in the basement of the Sant Pau modernist complex, converted into a historical archive.
Among the thousands of volumes that fill the shelves of the documentary fund of the Historical Archive of Sant Pau, – there are more than 28,000 records, but some are kept in the Biblioteca de Catalunya – there is documentation from up to six centuries antiquity From children’s files exhibited like Nicholas and the figures who took care of him, to censuses, royal privileges – some of which date from the 13th century – and scrolls, as well as the plans and salary booklets of the workers who erected the large modernist complex designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner now 121 years ago. According to the expert in historical documentation Miquel Terreu, there are records from when the center operated in the Raval, of how it was built [la compra de pedres o la tria dels arquitectes pel mateix Domènech i Montaner] and move to the modernist site, until the impact of the War of Succession or the Civil War.
The historical archive of Sant Pau treasures the intimacies of the first hospital in Barcelona, the former Hospital General de la Santa Creu, which was born in the Raval district in 1401 from the merger of six hostels founded by religious orders and aristocrats who did ” Christian charity”. “In the 15th century, a hospital was not understood as a space for healing, but as hostels for charity. They welcomed the destitute, the lepers, the pilgrims, the orphans. In other words, the people who lived in the Barcelona of misery, who had no possessions or money and who, whether they were sick or not, were protected or excluded from society”, summarizes Terreu.
For nearly five centuries, it was the only hospital in the province of Barcelona. The fund keeps some books of entries from anonymous citizens, which are the seed of clinical histories. Then, however, they provided very little information. “The assistance dimension did not exist. Before the 19th century, the hospital was only interested in knowing how many beds it needed, how many meals it had to prepare and whether it needed more or less staff,” says Terreu.
In fact, doctors spent a few hours a day on it. “Some out of sincere charity, others to gain more prestige”, points out the archivist. However, there are almost no medical records of the patients treated, as it was the doctors who kept the information. You have to go back to the 20th century to find (few) more detailed examples. Like that of J. Codina, married and 63 years old, who had cataract surgery in January 1907. Or that of EG, wounded in Balaguer in February 1939, at the end of the Civil War: “Soldier of 30-year-old infantry. Amputated arm and tuberculosis. He dies after two months.”
Exhibits, privileges and funding
An important chapter of the documentary fund is that of exposed children, which are contained in 135 records that go from the 15th century to the 19th century, when the Diputació de Barcelona began to take charge of them. Abandoned infants were taken in by the old hospital and assigned to mothers who nursed and cared for them until they were old enough to be placed as apprentices to a trade or as servants and servants. “The children arrived small, often just born, and the most important thing was to baptize them. If they could, they returned with their families. But, if not, at the age of 7 or 8 they were looking for a job”, explains Terreu.
Of these children, the archive also preserves about forty identifying objects, among which there are fragments of clothing and cords, strips of leather and coins and medals often broken up to be completed when the child was claimed. Soon, however, King Ferdinand the Catholic noticed that there were women who gave up their children and went in to act as guardians only of these children; that is, they cared for their children, but paid for the service. To avoid this fraud, the monarch instituted that the woman who did it, had to return all the money that had been paid to her.
This catalog also includes the Prayer Books or crazy, the first of which dates from the 17th century. These are records that document the internment of people with mental health disorders or with disabilities such as deafness or muteness to isolate them from society. For many poor families, it meant having to feed a mouth without adding hands to work.
From inside a drawer, Terreu takes out the founding bull of the Santa Creu hospital ratified by Pope Benedict XIII. The scroll, from 622 years ago but still valid, granted the institution certain privileges “before all Christendom”, such as the right to collect alms for the hospital. “The economic source was not the users, who were the poorest in society, but the alms and donations from families who left their property as an inheritance,” summarizes Terreu. In fact, even now there are heirs who give in exchange for annual masses. And a paradigmatic case is that of the baron of Castellet, who left all his assets to the hospital and, as he was a noble feudal lord, handed over the jurisdiction of his town.
However, royal privileges were the main source of funding. Among the 218 documents of royal concessions that have been preserved, the one that stands out is the rec countal, which authorized the hospital to build houses on crown land and collect rents, or the possibility of staying as a workforce the slave who supported himself and survived. Also, between 1587 and 1844, it had the exclusive right to the profits of theatrical performances in the city.
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