Hotel Dieu

The main tourist attraction in Beaune is the Hotel Dieu des Hospices de Beaune. Admission is €7.50, including an audio guide. The hospital is Burgundy's largest landowner of vineyards and hosts a prestigious wine auction every year on the 3rd weekend in November

This charity hospital was built in 1443 and remained in operation until 1971.

The hospital is beautiful with a multi-colored tile roof. The decorative roof is only on the interior of the building. From the outside, it is an austere building, so as not to attract looters.

Close up of the Burgundian roof.

Bed in the Paupers' Ward. This large room was lined with beds along both walls. Because the concept of infection and hand washing to prevent it weren't known until the 19th century, you were actually worse off in the ward than outside the hospital. People came here to die--the first hospice.

Painting showing patients being treated in 1949. Nuns served as nurses.

Jar in the pharmacy, containing Theriaca. This was a mixture of herbs, wine and opium. No wonder it was considered a panacea.

Polyptych of the Last Judgment by Flemish painter van der Weyden.

2015 09 24