El uso de Google Earth para el estudio de la arquitectura hospitalaria (I)de los asclepiones a los hospitales medievales .

Resumen

After almost fifteen years of functioning, Google Earth has become a tool of great utility for the research and teaching of social and natural sciences. Geography, which has terrestrial surface as its main object of study, has not remained outside the margins of this phenomenon, and the number of geographers who use this technology is increasing. In this work we examine the big architectural typologies of the establishments of sanitary assistance constructed in Ancient times and the Middle Ages, whilst in a later article (Ar#64;cne, nº 123, 1st August 2009) the main models of buildings from the Renaissance will be studied. In both cases, the subject matter is approached by using satellite images extracted from Google Earth's free version, which are complemented with ancient cartography and other graphics. In addition, we propose a new tool for teaching in different educational levels: a virtual trip across three thousand years of hospital architecture.