Hospital de la Caridad
Don Juan was the creation of the dramatist Tirso de Molina, whose parable inspired many versions including Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. Some claim the model for Don Juan was the local nobleman Miguel Mañara, whose mansion still stands on Calle Levíes. In fact, the play was published while he was still an infant, so it’s more likely the tale of the notorious libertine provided him with a role model. After a pleasure-seeking youth he eventually repented, using his wealth to build the Baroque Hospital de la Caridad (Hospital of Charity) and its church (pictured above). In his will, he asked to be buried at the threshold to the church, believing he was unfit to be entombed within. In an inscription there, he calls himself the “worst man who ever lived”, but his grateful beneficiaries disagreed, and he lies in the crypt. An exhibition dedicated to Mañara’s life and philanthropy makes no mention of the Don Juan myth.
Don Juan was the creation of the dramatist Tirso de Molina, whose parable inspired many versions including Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. Some claim the model for Don Juan was the local nobleman Miguel Mañara, whose mansion still stands on Calle Levíes. In fact, the play was published while he was still an infant, so it’s more likely the tale of the notorious libertine provided him with a role model. After a pleasure-seeking youth he eventually repented, using his wealth to build the Baroque Hospital de la Caridad (Hospital of Charity) and its church (pictured above). In his will, he asked to be buried at the threshold to the church, believing he was unfit to be entombed within. In an inscription there, he calls himself the “worst man who ever lived”, but his grateful beneficiaries disagreed, and he lies in the crypt. An exhibition dedicated to Mañara’s life and philanthropy makes no mention of the Don Juan myth.
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