HOSPITALIS – Hospital architecture in Portugal at the dawn of Modernity: identification, characterization and contextualization

Scheduling: October, 1 de 2018 to September, 30 de 2021

Brief Description

“HOSPITALIS – Hospital architecture in Portugal at the dawn of Modernity: identification, characterization and contextualization” is a research project that intends to globally and systematically study the phenomenon of the Portuguese hospital architecture, from the end of the 15^th century to the middle of the 16^th century, and to propose methods of dissemination and valuing this patrimonial typology.

The hospitals, having constituted a network due to the social role that they played in the society that dawned Modernity and because of the architectural particularity of having allied a strongly functional aspect to the aesthetic component, are a very relevant object of study.

However, the theme of medieval and modern Portuguese hospital architecture is practically unheard-of in the context of Portuguese art historiography. For this reason, there is the need to study the number of existing and subsisting specimens, their architectonic and artistic characteristics, their patrons and masters/architects, and their relationship with other architectural typologies.

Presentation

The project “HOSPITALIS – Hospital architecture in Portugal in the dawn of Modernity: identification, characterization and contextualization” aims to study, in a global and systematic manner, the phenomenon of hospital architecture built in Portuguese territory during the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age (between 15^th and 16^th centuries), and to serve as a methodology for patrimonial valorisation that encompasses several stages: inventory, characterization, analysis, virtualization, contextualization and dissemination.

The topic of Portuguese hospital architecture is virtually unexplored and absolutely unprecedented for the chronological segment addressed by the, a period crucial to the understand the evolution of health and care. Similarly, the systematic and global approach to the research topic is equally pioneer, as will be revealed in the literature review.

The exact number of these buildings is still unknown, as a simple inventory is still undone. However, given the major relevance of hospital institutions in medieval and pre-modern societies, we believe that they formed a broad network spread throughout the territory. Therefore, they figure as a very interesting research topic, also because they conjugate a proponent functional part with the artistic-architectural one. The architectural traces that still exist should number around the three dozen, and represent the main aesthetical movements of the epoch and the local artistical dynamics. Alongside these, there is another set of buildings that, due to several circumstances, no longer exist. However, we possess records with their description, which allows us to operate their virtual reconstitution and, in this way, contribute to a more exact definition of the panorama of hospital architecture in the dawns of modernity.

The study will be initiated by a comprehensive survey that seeks to list the several buildings with hospital functions, followed by the individualization of buildings that have earned their place as autonomous architectural units with record and/or material evidence. These buildings will be identified and analysed individually, regardless of the institutions that guard and/or manage them. The aim is to perceive the global characterization of the architectural and artistic traits of this architectural type, relating them not only to functional and aesthetic criteria, but also to the evolution of the concept of care, daily administration, and exercise of medicine and nursing. A second goal is to position it in the framework of south European health architecture.

Therefore, by approaching hospital architecture in Portugal as a total and multidimensional phenomenon, we expect to further the knowledge and boost the valorisation of the history of architecture and of Portuguese heritage, in comparison with the European reality, and to enable its assertion as a potential asset for dissemination, heritage appreciation and touristic diversity.

Researchers

Joana Balsa de Pinho (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal) (RIC)
Fernando Grilo (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal) (Co-RIC)

Ana Valéria Barro (Universidade Federal do Pará, Brazil)
Antoni Conejo da Pena (Universidad de Barcelona, Spain)
Augusto Moutinho Borges (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)
Beatriz  Lobato (Universidade Federal do Pará, Brazil))
Bernardo d’Orey Manoel (Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa, Portugal)
Cybelle Salvador Miranda (Universidade Federal do Pará, Brazil)
Danielle Abdon (Temple University, USA)
Fernando Villaseñor (Universidad de Cantabria, Spain)
Lina Oliveira (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)
Patrícia Alho (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)
Pol Bridgewater (Universidad de Barcelona, Espanha)
Raúl Villagrasa (CSIC, Spain)
Renato Pistola (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)
Ricardo J. Nunes da Silva (Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco/Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)
Vera Magalhães (Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal)

Consultants

Angela Madrid y Medina (CECEL – CSIC/UNED, Espanha)
Annemarie Kinzelbach (Technische Universität München, Germany)
Fabio Gabbrielli (Uiniversità di Siena, Italy)
Isabel dos Guimarães Sá (Universidade do Minho, Portugal)
John Henderson (Birkbeck – University of London, England)
Maria Antónia Lopes (Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal)

Michele Peregrini (Uiniversità di Siena, Italy)

Patrícia Monteiro (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)

Renato Gama Rosa (Fiocruz, Brazil)
Renato Marques de Carvalho (Universidade Federal do Pará, Brazil)