Hospices de Beaune
Interesting facts
- The glazed roof tiles were remade between 1902 and 1907 by the restorer Sauvageot, who devised his own patterns because the original designs had been lost.
- The Great Hall facing the street was roofed with slate from Trélazé, an imported material that was then more prestigious than the famous glazed tiles.
- The tie-beams of the Great Hall emerge from the painted jaws of dragon-like monsters, meant to call to mind the creatures of hell.
- Each curtained bed in the Great Hall was made to hold two patients, with a chest behind it for storing their clothes.
- The kitchen keeps a mechanical roasting spit from 1698, turned by a small costumed automaton nicknamed Messire Bertrand who seems to work the crank.
- The pharmacy shelves hold 130 faience jars dated 1782, which once stored the medicinal herbs, ointments, oils, pills and syrups of the hospital.
- Its Last Judgment altarpiece was credited to Jan van Eyck in 1836 and recognised as the work of Rogier van der Weyden only in 1843.
- An upstairs room is called the Chambre du Roy because King Charles VIII of France once spent a night there.
- Rolin, a citizen of Autun, considered founding the hospital there before choosing Beaune, a busy crossroads town without any large religious foundation.
- The charity wine auction has been held every November since 1859, and its 2009 edition set a record with 799 barrels put up for sale.
Why it is worth it
The courtyard roofs of the Hôtel-Dieu in Beaune are what people remember: steep slopes covered in glazed tiles of red, brown, yellow and green, laid in interlocking diamond patterns and pierced by rows of dormers with carved woodwork and iron finials. Below them run two-level galleries, stone on the ground floor and timber above, around a cobbled court with a Gothic iron well-head at its centre. Glazed-tile roofs of this kind became a signature of Burgundy, and this is the most celebrated of them; the tiles seen today were laid in the early twentieth century, in patterns devised by the restorer because the originals had been lost.
The hospital was founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor to Duke Philip the Good, and his wife Guigone de Salins. Burgundy was emerging from the Hundred Years' War, bands of mercenaries still plundered the countryside, and plague had recently struck the town; Rolin's foundation was meant as a free refuge for the poor and sick. The work was probably directed by the Flemish master Jacques Wiscrère, with Flemish and French craftsmen employed on stone, glass and paint, and the chapel was consecrated in 1452. The building went on receiving patients until 1971 and is now a museum.
Inside, the Great Hall of the Poor measures some 50 metres long under a painted timber vault shaped like an upturned boat, its tie-beams ending in carved heads that caricature notable townspeople of the day. Two rows of curtained beds line the walls, and the chapel opens at the far end so that patients could follow Mass without rising. The floor tiles repeat Rolin's monogram and his motto "Seulle estoile", a tribute to his wife. The hospital's greatest possession, Rogier van der Weyden's polyptych of the Last Judgment, painted for this chapel, is now shown in the museum, its panels separated so that both the inner scenes and the outer shutters can be seen at once.
Over the centuries benefactors left the institution farms, woods and, above all, vineyards. Its estate now covers around 61 hectares, much of it Grand Cru and Premier Cru, and since 1859 the wines have been sold at a charity auction each November, the centrepiece of the Burgundy festival known as Les Trois Glorieuses. Beaune itself is a small walled town at the heart of the Côte d'Or wine slopes, often described as the wine capital of Burgundy.
Getting there
The Hôtel-Dieu is in the historic centre of Beaune. The nearest airport is Dole–Jura (DLE) at Tavaux, about 45 km away. Beaune has a railway station on the main line between Dijon and Lyon, and the A6 and A31 motorways meet just outside the town.
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From the encyclopaedia
The Hospices de Beaune or Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune is a former charitable almshouse in Beaune, France. It was founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor of Burgundy, as a hospital for the poor. The original hospital building, the Hôtel-Dieu, one of the finest examples of fifteenth-century Burgundian architecture, is now a museum. Services for patients are now provided in modern hospital buildings.
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