Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Bretonneau Hospital occupies the site of the old hospice of Charity, created in 1656 by royal edict on the bases of a sanitas installed in 1545 in the house Redif, bought by the city in 1563. A first chapel and cemetery were built there in 1606. In 1661 Archbishop Le Bouthillier laid the first stone of a new chapel, designed by architect Daniel Masse, while three large parallel buildings were erected under his guidance. A refuge for repentance (1667) and an asylum for orphans (1738) gradually complete the whole, marked by changes in the eighteenth century.

In the 19th century, the hospital underwent major transformations under the direction of architect Gustave Guérin. Between 1834 and 1840, the buildings were restructured according to the original plan of the three parallel buildings, but extended westward (up to the future Tonnelle Boulevard). Guérin built maternity in 1837, typical of the Tourangeau style with its bosses and bays in the middle of the hanger. The chapel, restored in 1879 by Léon Rohard, saw its interior decoration completely redesigned: removal of floors, installation of a ceiling with painted caissons, and installation of stained glass windows signed Lobin (1878).

The hospital is also enriched with a school of medicine and pharmacy (1813), buildings for the alienated (1867 for women, 1891 for men), and laboratories (1894). In 1802 and 1805, he absorbed respectively the Hôtel-Dieu and l'hospice de la Madeleine, thus centralizing care at Tours. The facades of the former military hospital (neoclassical style, 1830) and the chapel are now classified as Historical Monument (1992), reflecting this architectural and medical evolution.

The protected elements include the Chapel of the Charity Hospice and the facades/roofs of the military hospital (Cadastre EP 60). The site, public property, illustrates French hospital history, from 17th century royal edicts to medical advances of the 19th century, in a dialogue between baroque, neo-classicism and hygienist rationalism.

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