CASTILE AND LEON FILM ARCHIVE

The House of the Old Women, also known as the House of Charity, is a Baroque building constructed in 1623 by Don Bartolomé Caballero Torquemada. Initially, it was his residence, but in his will, he bequeathed it to the Royal Clergy of San Marcos with the express wish to convert it into a House of Charity intended to host “honorable and poor widows.” Its popular name, House of the Old Women, comes from this welfare function.

The building features two floors, two interior courtyards, and a chapel with a Mudéjar coffered ceiling. Among its heritage, the Christ of Charity stood out—today preserved in the parish of Nuestra Señora de Fátima—, as well as an old triptych, an image of the Virgin of Solitude, and a painting of a Recumbent Christ, all pieces of remarkable artistic value.

The house continued to function as an asylum well into the 20th century. From the post-war period until the 1970s, the asylum coexisted with an ice factory installed in the same building. Over time, the lack of economic resources led to its deterioration and abandonment, which prompted the bishopric to donate the building to the Provincial Council of Salamanca. After its rehabilitation, it was expanded with a modern five-story building. In 1986, it was ceded as the headquarters of the Salamanca Foundation, created to promote the city's bid for the European Capital of Culture, a title Salamanca finally obtained in 2002. The latest intervention in the property has consisted of the recovery and adaptation of the old chapel as a temporary exhibition hall, inaugurated in 2014 with the exhibition “The Film Archive in its Environment”.

Since 1990, the building has housed the Film Archive of Castile and León, dependent on the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Regional Government of Castile and León and managed with the collaboration of the Salamanca City Council—which provides staff—and the Provincial Council—owner of the property. The Film Archive acts as the public archive of the Autonomous Community for photography, cinema, and audiovisual media, in addition to functioning as a documentation and research center. Currently, it is a highly prestigious institution, with a bibliographic collection of 27,000 items and a film and video archive exceeding 32,000 documents.

The so-called Casa de las Viejas (House of the Old Women) is a building of sober architecture, whose main facade, built with good ashlar masonry of Villamayor stone, faces San Julián Square. In it opens the lintelled door that gives access to the chapel. High on the facade stands a divided shield with the Lion of Saint Mark and the Habsburg coat of arms with the Golden Fleece, indicating that the institution depended on the Royal Clergy of Saint Mark.

The facade facing Gonzala Santana street is more modest, made with a masonry plinth and brick walls. The few windows opened in its walls, and the tower with a viewpoint enclosed by lattices, give it a marked conventual appearance.

Inside, the chapel is covered with a beautiful wooden frame. On the eastern side, the altarpiece and the altar table are preserved, whose front is a slate slab with a shield and an inscription alluding to the foundation. The Christ that originally presided over the altarpiece is now in the parish of Nuestra Señora de Fátima, where its invocation as Christ of Charity reveals its origin. On the wall opposite the door, a grille closes a window from which the residents attended mass. An inscription indicates that the chapel was consecrated in the year 1620.

The building preserves two interior courtyards. The main one features a lintelled portico with sandstone columns and, above it, a brick gallery with wooden lattices. The second courtyard has a small roof supported by a column and, at the back, a belfry with a bell that served to alert residents to daily activities.

Currently, the building houses the Filmoteca's facilities, which include the projection room, public service offices, the documentation team, several offices, and the editing room.

Within its vast photographic archive, which brings together nearly 300 collections, the Salamanca collections hold a prominent place, especially the collections of Venancio Gombau, Cándido Ansede, or Huebra. Alongside them, other regionally significant archives stand out, such as the Mayorga collection from Ávila or the Regueira collection from Segovia, evidencing the institution's regional scope.

Among its holdings, the permanent collection and exhibition Artilugios para fascinar (Devices to Fascinate), deposited by filmmaker Basilio Martín Patino, also stands out, gathering over 200 pre-cinematographic devices and more than a thousand images on various media. It is a fascinating journey through the ingenious devices with which our ancestors enjoyed images, first static and then in motion. From optical illusions and primitive paper animation, passing through the magic lantern, private or multitudinous spectacle evenings, photography, and stereoscopic views, all the way to the cultural and technological revolution of the cinematograph.

Within this collection, magic lanterns hold a prominent place. These devices, precursors to the cinematographic projector and used between the 17th and 19th centuries, help understand how the desire to create moving images emerged long before cinema. Their operation consisted of projecting, using a lens system, images painted or printed on glass plates that were illuminated by a light source, initially oil or gas. Some incorporated mechanisms that simulated movement—such as scene changes or small effects—thus constituting a primitive form of animation. Altogether, they represent a key step in the evolution of the projected image and help understand the origin of audiovisual language.

Finally, in the building's renovation carried out in 2014, the old chapel was recovered and repurposed for temporary exhibitions.