Power, Nobility and Charity: The Case of Morgado-chapel and the Hospital of the Barros Family in Braga, (Portugal)

Abstract

The Barros family, has, for centuries, administered the morgado of Real, the chapel of Senhora da Graça and a hospital in the city of Braga that harboured poor women. This hospital, named the Hospital de Santiago and the Hospital das Velhas (hospital for elderly women), was founded in the Late Middle Ages and continued to function until the 19th century. The current study analyses how aid to the poor, in an urban context, served as a catalyser of the prestige of the family that administered it. Using manuscript, printed and iconographic sources, processed by a multidisciplinary methodology, this investigation discusses the main patrimonial, social and symbolic coordinates that allowed the survival of the morgado and of the hospital in the long term.