The Hospital de la Isla del Rey, Minorca: Britain’s Island Hospital

Abstract

The small Spanish island of Minorca is the unexpected setting for a British naval hospital. It was constructed from 1711, during the first years of the British military occupation of the island, to provide medical care to mariners as they served in the strategically important Mediterranean. Scholars working in the fields of both medical and architectural history agree on the innovative importance of this hospital. Christine Stevenson, the foremost expert on early modern British hospital architecture, stated that: ‘the first of the purpose-built naval hospitals was at Port Mahon, Minorca […] [It] was, however, unique until the 1740s, when others were built on Jamaica and Gibraltar’. In terms of the history of hospital architecture, the Minorcan hospital’s role, as the sole purpose-built British naval hospital for over three decades, was a reflection of its exceptional setting, for it presented the British navy with an opportunity to create an infirmary that realized contemporary ideals of hospital design. The single-storey limestone edifice, which adopted the U-shaped plan already pioneered by Sir Christopher Wren (1635-1703) back in England, was located on an island in the middle of Mahon harbour, known by the name Isla del Rey. This was a highly significant location in Minorcan history, formerly called Ilia dels Conills (Rabbit Island), and was named for King Alfonso III of Aragon. It was from this island that Alfonso launched his reconquest of Minorca for Christendom from the Moors, and from this point in time Minorca was incorporated into Catalonia. No evidence has yet come to light of this important name in British usage; instead the occupiers referred to it as ‘Bloody Island’, or ‘Hospital Island’. Despite the informal and macabre renaming of the harbour island it was, however, a beautiful location, cooled by sea breezes, and was visible from all the surrounding cliffs.