The building was born with the idea of serving as a school for the acolytes and children of the Cathedral choir but when a large plague epidemic occurred in the year < strong>1704was changed of idea given the urgent need for hospitals that the city had. This assistance center was built in the 18th century in the neighborhood of the old Jewish quarter following the baroque style prevailing at the time and commissioned by Cardinal Salazar. At first it was ordered He gave the work to the Chief Master of the Cathedral, Francisco Hurtado Izquierdo, but when he died it was his nephew who finished it. the jobs. During his time of activity he welcomed poor, insane and prisonersand it even worked as a military hospital during the War of Independence.
Since 1837 it was known as as Acute Hospital for specializing in this type of patient and years later, in the last third of the 19th century, it became at the headquarters of the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Libre de Córdoba, since it was the only place in the city where future doctors could combine theory and practice. After its extinction as a hospital in 1969, it was used to house theUniversity Colleges of Law and Philosophy and Letters, today it continues to be the headquarters of the latter Faculty. Later, in 1987, modern spaces were built for better functioning of the institution: library, assembly hall and offices.< /span>
The building does not have the traditional floor plan used by hospitals due to the primitive project that built it. he planned as a school. Its rectangular floor plan is distributed around two patios and in the center is the large main staircase covered with a barrel vault that stands out to the outside as a largetower that dominates the building. The galleries, also vaulted, are arranged on two floors that correspond to the patios and house the numerous rooms that housed the sick.
The main patio is closed with rectangular openings topped by triangular pediments on the lower floor and semicircular ones on the upper floor and a marble fountain in the center. The second patio is made up of semicircular brick arches on columns in the lower part and in the upper part of a series of rectangular openings. On the façade we find two bodies formed with triangular pediments in the lower part and semicircular in the upper part separated by double pilasters. Thebeautiful doorwaycarved in stone, linteled with an entablature and with side columns. The entrance is finished with a balcony sheltered by a semicircular arch on pilasters that exalts the shield of Cardinal Salazar. p>
Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 21:00.
Other nearby points of interest are the Chapel of San Bartolome, the Bullfighting Museum and the Synagogue.