Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 59-05, Section: A, page: 1369.

Director: Walter Cahn.

A ubiquitous feature of pilgrimage in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, hospices accommodated dispossessed and ailing travelers on their way to venerate the relics of Saint James in Compostela. Architectural remains of the few hospices surviving from this period are scattered throughout southern France and northern Spain, providing a tangible understanding of the experience of medieval travel. In an atmosphere of vigorous interdisciplinary dialogue about medieval pilgrimage and the poor, this dissertation aims to fill a significant gap in our knowledge about the topographical setting and the architectural nature of the hospice. It questions how the architecture and decoration of these monuments constitute meaning when viewed within the social context of pilgrim traffic, Christian charity, and ecclesiastical administration along the roads.

Despite the numerous studies devoted to art along the pilgrimage roads of northern Spain, the architecture, decoration, and placement of the hospice within the medieval city have been neglected. Locales such as Burgos and Le Puy boast some of the most celebrated monuments of the pilgrimage road, yet the medieval hospices in these important centers are practically unknown to architectural historians. This dissertation synthesizes a wide range of disparate evidence with the goal of illuminating one of the least understood chapters in the history of medieval architecture.

After setting the stage with historical context, this dissertation turns to the placement of the hospice within the medieval landscape, interpreting patterns in their location vis a vis urban and natural structures within the context of the experiential and socio-historical aspects of pilgrimage. Next, it unravels the complex architectural and functional relationships that link these buildings to one another and to earlier sources. A more thorough examination of three specific monuments--the Royal Hospital of Burgos, the New Hospital in Pons, and the Hospital of Saint Mary in Le Puy--traces the particular circumstances surrounding the foundation, construction, and function of the medieval hospice. Finally, a basic catalogue of surviving pilgrims' hospices from the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries forms an appendix to the primary text of the dissertation, constituting a backbone from which to forge a meaningful comparative analysis.