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Origin and history

Saint-Lazare de Tours was founded between the end of the 11th century and the 12th century as an establishment intended to isolate lepers, in accordance with the decisions of the Third Lateran Council (1179). Located on the southern outskirts of the city, away from the urban centre to avoid contagion, it included a chapel dedicated to Lazarus of Bethany and accommodation buildings reserved for the sick by birth. The 1993 excavations exhumed 57 skeletons, mostly with leper lesions, making this site the largest French archaeological site on a leprosy.

In the 14th century, with the decline of leprosy and the arrival of the black plague, the maladry was transformed into a hospital for pestifers, keeping its original name. Its geographical isolation, inherited from its original vocation, had a lasting impact on the surrounding neighbourhood, which took the name Sanitas (health in Latin). This toponym, linked to the historical presence of the establishment, still persists today in the Tourangelle toponymy.

From the 17th century on, the disappearance of the plague led to a change of vocation: a royal edict of 1672 captured the maladry at the religious orders of Mount Carmel and Saint Lazare of Jerusalem, before it became a military residence in 1698. In the 18th century, the buildings were converted into quarantine warehouses for goods, maintaining their sanitary role on the outskirts of the city. The French Revolution marked a break with the sale of the premises as national goods, divided into two separate lots.

The chapel, the only vestige of today, had a turbulent history: used as a workshop in the 19th century, it was ravaged by a fire in 1910, then transformed into a dwelling and depot before being abandoned. Joined historic monuments in 1987, it was searched in 1993 and rehabilitated in 1997 when a residence for the elderly was built. Today, its west façade, which is very remodelled, and some interior elements (pallets, bows with saw teeth) remain, although not accessible to the public.

The original architecture of the chapel, 22 meters long, included a nave of four spans completed by a cul-de-four apse, enlarged in the 12th century by a northern collateral. The successive destructions (fire of 1910, demolition of vaults and apses) left intact only quality decorative fragments, now hidden behind modern walls. The site, located 250 metres south of the SNCF station, occupies a historic location: a Gallo-Roman necropolis of the 2nd century used to be there, along an ancient road linking Caesarodunum (Tours) to the south of Gaul.

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