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A UGR student publishes a book on the history of the Military Hospital of Granada

The book forms part of the work carried out in the Laboratory of Architectural Restoration, supervised by professor Javier Gallego Roca –author of the prologue of this volume—about the study and maintenance of Granada’s architectural heritage, especially the convents and palaces of the city, deals with the history of the building of the School of Architecture in the Campo del Príncipe, from the urbanization of the square in 1513 to present, emphasizing its different uses.

The book includes 10 chapters in which the author analyses the historic evolution of the building since the Muslim structures of the cemetery of al- Fajjarin to nowadays (1.- Introduction and generalities. 2.- The maqbarat bab al- Fajjarin cemetery. 3.- Stefano Centurione’s palace. 4.- Mendoza’s palace. 5.- The High Hospital of the Encarnación. 6.- San Cecilio Free School. 7.- The Teacher Training College. 8.- The Campo del Príncipe in the 19th century. 9.- Príncipe Alfonso Military Hospital and 10.- Granada’s Higher Technical School of Architecture). In order to do his homework, he has worked in the following archives: Granada’s Archive of the Cathedral Chapter, Casa de los Tiros Archive, Simancas General Archive, Council Historic Archive of Granada, Historic National Archive, Granada’s Historic Provincial Archive, Historic Archive of the Universidad de Granada, Archive of the Gómez Moreno Institute, General Militar Archive Alcázar de Segovia, Archive of the Board of the Alhambra and the Generalife, particular Archive of D. Francisco Álvarez Puerto, particular Archive of D. Miguel Giménez Yanguas, Archive of the Royal Academia of Medicine and Surgery of Granada, General Library of the Universidad de Granada and Land Registry of Granada.

Fernando Acale is a student of the last course of the Higher Technical School of Architecture of the Universidad de Granada. He has been a research scholarship holder of the Centro di Studi Storico Archivistici per la Storia Dell´Arte e Dell´Architettura Medioevale e Moderna de Roma for the restoration of the historic city centre of the Habana Vieja (Cuba) (1999) and the Universidad de Granada, where he has carried out several works.
He has collaborated on: The Special Plan for the historic City Centre of Granada, with Salmerón Escobar Architects (1998- 2000); in the restoration of the Setenil keep (Cádiz) and the Roman theatre of Bolonia in Tarifa (Cádiz), with Fernando Visedo Manzanares (1998- 2000); the restoration of the Nazari wall of Granada, with Javier Gallego Roca (2001); the proyecto of the new Council Historic Archive of Granada, with Luis Feduchi Canosa (2002); and the restoration project of the machinery del Molino del Marqués, with Miguel Giménez Yanguas and Antonio Luis Espinar Moreno (2003).

He has published several works on Architecture and Town-Planning History: “The Military Hospital of Granada. From Renaissance Palace to School of Architecture” (Caja San Fernando, 2003), “Historic building transformation: the Holy heart School in El Puerto de Santa María” (El Puerto Sta. María Town Council, 2003), “Historic-constructive analysis of the Palace of the Condes de Castillejo” (Universidad de Granada, 2003.

Work record

In the year 1998 there was an international design competition to restore the old Military Hospital of Granada, quarter of the School of Architecture, located in the Campo del Príncipe. The project by architect Víctor López Cotelo was awarded with the prize.
In 1999 Cotelo’s project obtained the distinction of Model Intervention Project in Historic City Centres by the Ministries for Public Works and Education and Culture, which involved an economic support equivalent to 1% of the cultural budget and the compliance of the specific regulation of this kind of projects, which included the carrying out of certain previous studies.

The stage of Previous Studies started in January 2000 and the respective Archaeological Prospecting, Analysis of Wall Coatings, Quality Control Tests, Planimetric Construction and Historic- Constructive Studies.

The Archaeological Prospecting were supervised by Antonio Malpica Cuello; the Analysis of Wall Coatings by Víctor Medina Flórez; the Quality Control Tests were carried out by the company VORSEVI, under the supervision of Jesús Barrios Sevilla; the planimetric study was coordinated by José Manuel López Osorio and Alejandro Muñoz Miranda; and the historic- constructive study was given to Fernando Acale Sánchez.

In January 2001 the work carried out by Fernando Acale, under the title of “Histórico- architectural study of the Military Hospital of Granada, old Palace of the Aragón Admiral” was presented to the annual competition of the 15th edition of the Caja San Fernando Essay Prizes of Jerez and Seville. (The subject matter of these prizes is Andalusia’s heritage.)

In May 2001 the Prize was awarded to Fernando Acale’s work, who received 500,000 pesetas and the edition of the work.


Further information:
Fernando Acale.
Higher Technical School of Architecture of Granada. Phone numbers: 958 203241 and 676 804 340.
E-mail. fernandoacale@hotmail.com