[History of the Hôtel-Dieu of Bourges]

Abstract

Bourges hospital (Hôtel-Dieu de Bourges, 1527) is one of the last to be built in France modeled in the Beaune style (1443) with chapel and wards linked in one line. The former gothic part, built between 1510 and 1527, was later completed by two Renaissance doors (1511 and 1533) and by two classical style wings built after the 1628 plague. Following the Revolution, the gothic part was divided by a floor which somewhat alters the interior appearance of the whole construction. The closing of the general care unit in November 1994 (and transfer of the Bourges General Hospital to new premises) now renders feasible the restoration of the former hospital (Hôtel-Dieu) almost unknown until now, thereby giving it the place it might fully desserve in the architectural and tourist heritage of Bourges.