Mikey Campbell
The ruins of a hospital built in the 1400s was unearthed during construction of the flagship Madrid Apple Store on Tuesday, adding to other artifacts recently discovered as modern renovations and construction dig deeper into the heart of the Spanish capital.
As first reported by Spanish language publication El Pais (via TUAW), the walls of the Buen Suceso hospital were discovered by construction workers renovating a historic structure at Number 1 Puerta del Sol, in which Apple's outlet will be located.
Built in the early 15th century to treat plague victims, the hospital was demolished in 1854 to make space for the existing square that stands above its buried walls. A church bearing the same name was found next to the site in June 2009 during construction of a light rail station. That project was halted for 10 months as archaeologists studied and preserved the ruins.
Apple won't have to put its renovations on hold, however, as the director of Madrid's heritage department, Jaime Ignacio Muñoz, instructed the company to merely change the basement's flooring to “symbolically" trace where the walls stand below.
The Puerta del Sol location will be Apple's third in Madrid, and takes residence in the famous Hotel Paris building, which was erected just five years after the Buen Sucesco hospital and church were torn down. Apple is expected to occupy 6,000 square feet of the building, including some of the basement where Tuesday's discovery was made. The massive amount of floor space of the Madrid flagship store is expected to exceed even that of the company's iconic Fifth Avenue location in New York.
Christine McKee
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34 Comments
I guess now Apple will accused of destroying Spanish artifacts. Seems only right when Apple does anything these days.
Pretty cool. But I'd rather have Apple wait 10 months to study, document, and preserve any ruins and artifacts, than settle for some vague "symbolism" hidden within the seldom-seen modern basement's floorplan! The most we ever find here in basements here in the States is arrowheads :(
According to Spanish newspapers, they knew at once that the ruins was a hospital due to the skeletons standing upright, lined up at the entrance, waiting to get in to be seen.
If they had been found by the back door, picked clean, then it would have been a government tax office building...
[quote name="lkrupp" url="/t/158437/remains-of-15th-century-hospital-uncovered-during-construction-of-madrid-apple-store#post_2360294"]I guess now Apple will accused of destroying Spanish artifacts. Seems only right when Apple does anything these days.[/quote] A find like that isn't a big deal in Europe, just about anything is built on top of something else; Europe actually has a history; not like in the US where the "historic district commission" is getting in the way of renovating a largely boring wood house constructed 1933, the year my mom was born... If they has found a building of historic significance it would be different, but a hospital is just a utility building...
If you check out other sites, where they show actual pictures of the "wall" itself, it looks more like shitty partial remains of a 15th century wall that have been irredeemably altered several times in the intervening years. We're basically talking about a 3 foot high blob of old rough stones from the 15th century mixed with concrete and steel I-Beams from the 20th century. Not archival, obviously rebuilt several times, and even if you ignore all that, basically a pile of rough stones. Pieces of wall from the same site have even been discovered several times previously, examined and identified as having no historical value so it's unlikely that this has any value either.