The hospital was founded by Julius Echter, Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, in 1576 on the ground of a Jewish cemetery with the endowment of the abandoned Monastery of Sancta Vallis in Heiligenthal.

[1]: 58 The end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648 left part of the village of Thüngen in the hands of the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, administered by the Juliusspital.

[2] In 1878, in an article in The Examiner comparing the status of medical education in England and overseas, reported that "In Germany, the faculties are more equal.

Under his leadership, new surgical techniques were introduced, a regimen of hygiene was established, and renovation of the Theatrum Anatomicum took place.

North of the Spital is a park used by the patients, fronted to the right by the Alte Anatomie (by Joseph Greising, built in 1705–14.

The park also features a water basin by Jacob van der Auvera with stone dolphins and allegorical figures for the Franconian rivers Main, Tauber, Saale and Sinn.