María Cristina de Habsburgo-Lorena (1858-1929)

It is said that María Cristina de Habsburgo Lorena was not very happy in Spain. She was born on July 21 1858 in the castle of Gross-Seelowitz in Moravia, Bohemia, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She married Alfonso XII in 1879 after he was widowed the year before when his beloved María de las Mercedes died. The marriage does not appear to have been a happy one, among other things because of the King´s continuous infidelities. Before she too was widowed when Alfonso XII died in 1885, she had time to bear two daughters and get pregnant again. This pregnancy resulted in the birth of Alfonso XIII, who displaced the Princess of Asturias in the line of succession. Another family misfortune, which may explain the sad expression of María Cristina in her portraits, was the death of both her daughters from, exactly,  complications during delivery: the Princess of Asturias died in 1904 and her sister, the infanta María Teresa, in 1912.

María Cristina involved herself in many works of charity, and she enthusiastically welcomed the idea of building a hospital for women in the capital of the kingdom. To raise funds to start the building work, she set up a Junta de Señoras (Committee of Women) on June 12 1903, and she herself took on the presidency together with the Princess of Asturias. The countess of Sástago and the marchioness of Martorell were named vice-presidents, Amalia Loring, Francisco Silvela´s wife, took on the post of secretary and the marchioness of Comillas that of treasurer. Practically all the Spanish aristocracy had a representative on the Committee as one of the 58 spokespersons. With the 400,000 pesetas raised in the first year and the donation by the Queen herself of the land where the building was to be, a plot 6,149.18 m², the work could start.