Hospital de la Caridad

Lonely Planet review

A marvellous sample of Sevillan golden-age art adorns the church in this charity hospice, the Hospital de la Caridad, a block from the river. The hospital was founded in the 17th century by Miguel de Mañara, by legend a notorious libertine who changed his ways after experiencing a vision of his own funeral procession.

For the church, Mañara commissioned a collection of top-class 17th-century Sevillan art on the theme of death and redemption. Valdés Leal's frightening masterpieces In Ictu Oculi (In the Blink of an Eye) and Finis Gloriae Mundi (the End of Earthly Glory) face each other across the western end of the church, chillingly illustrating the futility of worldly success. Four Murillo paintings along the walls illustrate the theme of redemption through mercy. They show Moses drawing water from the rock, the miracle of the 'loaves and fishes', St John of God (San Juan de Dios) caring for an invalid, and Isabel of Hungary curing the sick. Mañara is buried in the crypt beneath the main altar, on which a masterly sculpture by Pedro Roldán illustrates the final act of mercy, the burial of the dead - in this case, of Christ himself.