Illescas

Illescas stood on the road linking Madrid and Toledo, a position reflected in its charitable and religious institutions. Cardinal Cisneros inaugurated the Hospital de la Caridad in 1500 to serve the town and pilgrims. The hospital and its attached place of worship became a notable centre of devotion, visited by figures including Philip III and Margaret of Austria.

A new sanctuary was begun in 1588 to designs by Nicolás de Vergara the Younger and inaugurated in 1600. Between 1603 and 1605 El Greco designed the decoration of its principal altarpiece and supplied paintings for the ensemble. The commission gives this Castilian town a specific place in the artistic and devotional world of the early seventeenth century. The architectural foundation's account also records valuable gifts from prominent donors during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Illescas therefore participated in routes of pilgrimage, charity and artistic patronage as well as the surrounding agricultural economy.