Hospital de la Caridad

Before you stands the Hospital de la Santa Caridad, and opposite it a statue of a man carrying an invalid in his arms. This is Miguel de Mañara, one of the most fascinating figures of Baroque Seville.

1From gentleman to brother of Charity

Mañara was born in Seville in 1627 into a very wealthy family. He himself described his youth as dissolute and violent. His wife's death in 1661 was the turning point: he withdrew to reflect, and in 1663 he was elected head of the Brotherhood of the Santa Caridad, which devoted itself to burying the drowned and the executed. Under his leadership the brotherhood built a hospital for the poor and completed the church of San Jorge, decorated by Murillo and Valdés Leal.

2The shadow of Don Juan

Nineteenth-century Romantic writers blended his life with the myth of Don Juan, and tradition added unforgettable scenes, such as the night Mañara supposedly came across his own funeral procession. These are literary tales: there is nothing to suggest he inspired the original Don Juan, who predates his conversion.

«Here lie the bones and ashes of the worst man who ever lived in the world. Pray to God for him.»

That is the epitaph Mañara himself requested in his will, for a grave at the church entrance where everyone would step on it. He died in 1679, and the Church declared him Venerable in 1985.

3What to look for

• The tile panels on the façade.
• Mañara's statue with the sick man in his arms.
• The nearby river, where the brotherhood recovered the drowned.