Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune (Hospices de Beaune)

Beaune

In 1443 Nicolas Rolin, chancellor to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Guigone de Salins founded a hospital for the poor in Beaune. After eight years of building, the Hôtel-Dieu received its first patient in 1452. Its Great Hall of the Poor is fifty metres long and sixteen high beneath its timber roof; the hospital holds Rogier van der Weyden's Last Judgement polyptych, painted around 1445–1450 according to the museum. The star and the motto "Seulle" repeated on the walls are read by the museum as Rolin's tribute to Guigone, his only lady. In 1457 a first gift of vineyards began the wine estate that would keep the institution alive; its wines have been sold at auction since 1859, according to the Hospices. Listed as a historic monument in 1862, the Hôtel-Dieu is now a museum. The collegiate church of Notre-Dame, which has its own entry, is three hundred metres away.

Getting there : Open every day, paid visit; entrance at 2 rue de l'Hôtel-Dieu.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

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