The Hospital del Rey was a healthcare establishment for pilgrims and passers-by located next to the Camino de Santiago as it passes through the city of Burgos, and forms part of the National Heritage, along with El Parral.

It was founded in 1195 by King Alfonso VIII of Castile and his wife Doña Leonor Plantagenet, as a centre for the reception of pilgrims, dependent on the monastery of Las Huelgas.1 Next to its entrance, the Puerta de Romeros, is the hermitage of San Amaro and the cemetery where pilgrims who died were buried. In 1234, the Hospital de Valdefuentes and its domains were incorporated into the King's Hospital.

After the disentailment laws of the 19th century, it passed from the monastery of Las Huelgas to the Junta de Beneficencia Municipal de Burgos, being absorbed by the crown in 1874.

During the civil war it was used by the rebel side as a hospital for the Moroccan Muslim troops, which implied some transformations, among them the construction of a mosque in the hospital courtyard3 which at the end of the 1940s was in ruins and of which no remains were preserved when in the 1980s the building was recovered for university use.

The remains have been restored and given over to the University of Burgos. It houses the rector's office, the Faculty of Law and the old library. In the beautiful landscaped surroundings there is a chessboard where musical activities are organised in the summer to coincide with the university's Summer Courses.