Our heritage, for the use and enjoyment of all
Considered by some the world's first hotel, the Hostal de los Reyes Católicos (Catholic kings’ hostel) started as a pilgrim hospital after the monarchs visit to Santiago. They saw that the existing hospital was insufficient and earmarked a part of the "war profits" to build this beautiful building to serve "all the devout, sick and healthy that will come to the city."
That Royal Hospital, which opened in 1509, was made with the vocation to be the largest and with the best infrastructure of the entire pilgramage route... And boy was it achieved!
There still remain some of the "protocols" that were established to care for the sick, in which it is even specified that each one have a drywall so that the doctor can specify what should be eaten, how often they should change the straw of the mattresses to prevent infection ... Medical care ... As well as "spiritual", being that they made it obligatory to say the Lord's Prayer five times a day. Among the curiosities, it amazes me that they tended to the sick and the pilgrims in more than "half a dozen European languages.”
Transforming afterwards into a hospital ("pure and simple"), in the late fifties it became a Hostel, becoming part of the Paradores Nacionales (state run tourist hotels) network becoming one of their emblems.
