|
 The
presence of a Benedictine Abbey meant that Charlieu, from the Middle Ages, was an
important site for French hospital history. Already in the 9th century, the
hospital received pilgrims and the poor.The hospital at Charlieu, later established in the centre of the town, went well through the trials and tribulations up to its closure in 1981. It is in its walls, of an old and superb building of the 18th century, that there was recently a hospital museum created. It benefits from the label "musée contrôlé", awarded by the Culture Minister as a pledge to its quality and interest. At the Hospital Museum in Charlieu you find reconstructions of the rooms dating from
the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th. You will
be surprised by the size of the rooms with its rows of beds, but also the operating rooms
and linen rooms. As well as the druggists, its wood trim, glass bottles and a very nice collection of earthenware pots from the 18th century and a blue décor (collection classed as a Historic Monument). It was the religious of the order of Sainte-Marthe who officiated in Charlieu for three
centuries and this religious dimension of hospitals is otherwise evoked notably by the
presence of the chapel in which the magnificent wooden gilded altar (classed as Numerous objects of a medical character, documents, photography, furniture, are all part of the heritage of the hospital and illustrate its history and evolution from its daily function. If it seems that "it smells of a hospital" it is not an illusion: the odours in different rooms were reconstructed by a specialist laboratory. On leaving, you can benefit from the setting of the garden before resuming your tour around Charlieu. |
a Historical Monument) is visible from the
Museum.