The complex, designed by Guillem d'Abiell, was planned on a grand scale in the form of four two-story wings surrounding a central patio.

In 1703, Antoni Viladomat, one of the most significant Catalan painters of the Baroque period, painted the chapel of Saint Paul.

[5][better source needed] In 1763, in front of the Casa de Convalescència, the College of Surgeons (later Medical Faculty and now Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia) was built, by Ventura Rodríguez.

The oldest part of the Hospital de la Santa Creu is an impressive example of Catalan civil-Gothic architecture.

Also of note is the cross vaulted Galeria del pati, which borders the inner garden, and the arched entrance to the library at the patio, built in the sixteenth century.