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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The former chapel Saint-Yon, located in the Saint-Clément district of Rouen, was built between 1728 and 1734 within the mansion of the same name, acquired in 1705 by Jean-Baptiste de La Salle. The latter installed the central headquarters of its Institute of Brothers of Christian Schools, a novitiate and an innovative boarding school combining technical teaching (carpentry, sculpture, botany) and scientific subjects, excluding Latin. The chapel, dedicated to the Holy Child Jesus, initially housed the grave of the founder and was decorated with statues now missing.

The manor house of Saint-Yon, formerly called Hauteville, was renamed after its acquisition in 1604 by Eustache de Saint-Yon, master of the House of Accounts of Normandy. Under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (1705–1719), the site became a major educational centre, supported by Archbishop Colbert and the Normandy Parliament. After the Revolution, the manor was used in a variety of ways: prison, asylum of aliens (directed by figures such as Benedict Morel), then normal school from 1881, forming personalities like Charles Angrand.

In the 20th century, the site evolved into a college (Alexis-Carrel, then Jean-Lecanuet) before hosting the Cité des métiers de Haute-Normandie (2005–2011). Since 2012, after restoration by the Region, it has been home to the Atrium, the regional knowledge hub. The classical façade of the chapel, the only part remaining with its crypt (inscribed in the Historical Monuments in 1991), bears witness to this rich past, between pioneer pedagogy and architectural adaptations.

During the First World War, part of the mansion was converted into an auxiliary hospital (No. 103) by the Union des femmes de France to treat wounded soldiers. A monument to the dead, the work of sculptor Alphonse Guilloux, was inaugurated in 1921 in the presence of President Alexandre Millerand. These transformations illustrate the resilience of the site, from a religious and educational place to a memorial and cultural space.

The asylum Saint-Yon, one of the first in France reserved for the alienated (from 1825), played a key role in Norman psychiatric history. Under the direction of doctors such as Achille-Louis Foville or Maximien Parchappe, he produced innovative social statistics, studied by medical and administrative circles. In 1878, the services were transferred to a new establishment in Sotteville-lès-Rouen, marking the end of this hospital vocation on the Rouennais site.

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