CASA DE LOS PISA
This museum is packed with religous artefacts dedicated to Saint John of God. Entrance is free but donations are encouraged. Of interest if you like typical Spanish religious iconography. An interesting way to spend 15 minutes. Apart from the churches there are other religious curiosities in this area just along the Darro river: For example. The nuns who sell sweets, you put you money on a circular wooden disc and the sweets come around but you never see the nuns. The chocolate-covered cherries are my favourite.
The Pisa family built their home in 1494, two years after the Christian Reconquest of Spain by the Catholic Monarchs, when they came to settle in Granada. They were originally from the town of Almagro, near Calatrava. Records dating back as far as 1516 show that university graduate Juan Rodriguez de Pisa resided in Granada. His eldest son, Don Garcia de Pisa y Villarreal, married Doha Ana Osorio and their descendants occupied the house for several generations.
St John of God came to Granada in 1538. Following numerous heroic acts of charity, he founded a hospital to care for the many poor and abandoned, no matter what their condition, who lived in the Granada. To finance this project, John of God would beg for alms from the noble and rich families of the city, which eventually led to his friendship with the "Pisa and Osorio" Family. He would faithfully visit the Pisa home every day where he was always openly received and given generous donations. This daily visit transpired over several years until suddenly one day John of God did not appear. The lady of the house was so wrought with worry she decided to visit the hospital which by then had been moved to larger premises along the Cuesta de Gomerez. Doña Ana was greatly affected upon discovering that John of God had fallen seriously ill and immediately offered him her home where he could be given adequate medical attention and care. Yet Lady Ana was unsuccessful in convincing St. John who insisted that he preferred to die in his hospital and among his poor patients.
Doña Ana however did not desist in her endeavour, and went to visit the then Archbishop Pedro Guerrero who issued an official letter asking John of God to accept her offer for the sake of his health. St. John of God was taken into the Pisa Home on February 20th, 1550 and died on March 8th of the same year, at the age of fifty-five. The few days he spent in the Pisa Home and his saintly death were enough to endear this home to the people of Granada and the devotees who travel from all over the world to visit the place of St. John of God's death.