Chapel and Cloister of the Hospital of San Roque.
 
The chapel was begun in 1517 in honor of San Roque in request for the end of the plague that in that year was propagated throughout Galicia. Seven years later it was completed after construction was halted for fifty-three. It has only one level and an octagonal apse.

The hospital was founded in 1577, as a result of another plague that destroyed the town of Santiago. The building was constructed with a cloister of greater artistic wealth than the chapel itself.

The construction contract of the chapel is dated 1570, the record of its foundation and the endowment of the Hospital by the Archbishop Francisco Blanco are of 1577, and the record of the transfer of lands for the construction of the hospital is of 1578.

On the 1st of June of 1577, the Archbishop began by giving ten thousand duchies to the Chapter to build "a hospital, in which the poor, ill people can be cured and remedied of their pustules and other contagious ailments (with the exception of the ill from the order of San Lázaro), and the many poor can also if they ever have the need", empowering the Chapter to build and endow the house with this rent. The work was concluded at the beginning of 1582.

In the first third of the XIXth century, the hospital underwent a complete restoration, as indicated in the inscriptions on the frieze and on one of the columns of the cloister.

The cloister, of Doric style, is of simple elegance. It has four arches per side that rest on beautiful columns made of one entire piece.

The chapel nothing unusual offers. The 3 altars are Churrigueresque. In the main alter there are statues of San Roque, St. Cosme and St. Damian, that also adorn the door of the building. The collateral of the Gospel is dedicated to Our Lady of Monserrat and the collateral of the Epistle, to St. Sebastian. The current facade that could not be simpler was made in the middle of the XVIIth century as demonstrated by the inscription above the door:
 "This frontispiece was made with the alms of the confreres of St. Roque and of Antonio Freijóo Mayordomo, 4 years of devotion. Year 1642".

  

  

Dpto. de Composición.  Universidade da Coruña.