Hospice Comtesse
Founded in 1237 by Countess Jeanne of Flanders, the Hospice Comtesse cared for Lille's sick for almost seven hundred years before becoming a museum. Behind its gate lie a great tiled sick ward, a chapel, and a quiet Flemish courtyard in the heart of Vieux Lille.
Sobre este lugar
The Hospice Comtesse was founded in 1237 by Jeanne, Countess of Flanders, who established a hospital within the grounds of her own palace to care for the poor and the sick of Lille. For nearly seven centuries it did exactly that, run by a community of Augustinian sisters and functioning as a working hospital right up until 1939. The buildings you see today date mostly from the fifteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, arranged around two courtyards and a medicinal garden where healing plants were once grown. At its heart is the great sick ward, the Salle des Malades, with a vast wooden barrel vaulted ceiling like the upturned hull of a ship, and a kitchen famously lined with blue and white tiles. Since 1962 the whole complex has been the city's museum of art and history, filled with Flemish paintings, tapestries, furniture and earthenware.
Datos clave
- 1237 year — The year Countess Jeanne of Flanders founded the hospital
- 1939 year — The year it finally stopped operating as a hospital
- 700 years — Close to seven centuries it cared for the sick of Lille
📍 Rue de la Monnaie, 59800, Lille