The Tour of the 7 Churches
SAINT JAMES HOSPITAL
The little hospital was built on a hill at the south extremity of Castelnuovo d’Elsa.
The function of this place was hosting pilgrims and sheltering impoverished. In 1353, Castelnuovo councillors expressly requested the Volterra bishop’s permission to dedicate the hospital to San Jacopo.
This name is equivalent to the name James, first martyr apostle and Saint John the Evangelist’s brother.
After Jesus’s death, Jacopo went in Spain to spread the Gospel.
There, due to language questions, he has been called Santiago.
Once dead, he was dubbed Santiago of Compostela, from the locality of his tomb, destination of lots pilgrimages since Middle Ages.
The first hospital dean was Bartolo di Chello who well administrated it thanks to his own richness.
Event thought there was only one bed, its function of hostel- refuge lasted more than one century.
Today, it is just a ruin that Castelnuovo people would love to see restored.
