The Hospices of Beaune

The Hotel-Dieu was born on the 4 of August 1443. The Hundred Years War had recently been brought to an end by the signing of the Treaty of Arras in 1435. The massacres, however, continued and the “écorcheurs” (skinners) were still roaming the countryside, pillaging, destroying, provoking misery and famine. The majority of the people of Beaune were declared destitute. Nicolas Rollin, Chancellor of the Duke of Burgundy Philippe le Bon and his wife Guigone de Salins reacted by deciding to create a hopital for the poor.

The hospital received its fist patient on 1st of January 1452. Elderly, disabled, orphans, sick people, women about to give birth, the destitute, were all received and treated, from the Middle Ages until the 20th century. The hospital Sisters dispensed their care ceaselessly. For centuries, they remained the very essence of the Hotel-Dieu. Throughout all this time, the hospital radiated outwards and federated other establishments in Pommard, Nolay, Meursault and Beaune constituting real community, called “Hospices de Beaune”.