Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The military and bourgeois hospital of Haguenau was built between 1783 and 1788 under the impulse of the Intendant of Alsace, according to the plans of Charpentier, director of the Bridges and Chaussées. Destined for the military of the province and the local bourgeois, he lost his hospital vocation in 1788 after a royal order abolishing regional military hospitals. During the Revolution and the Empire, he welcomed wounded soldiers on time, before becoming a begging depot in 1812, then a barracks between 1815 and 1818.

In 1822, the Department of Justice transformed the building into a central women's house, where famous inmates such as Violette Nozière (1935–1940) and Pauline Dubuisson (1953–1959) were imprisoned. The prison officially closed in 1960, but reopened in 1964 as a rehabilitation centre for prisoners with psychiatric problems until its final closure in 1986. Partially demolished, the site has been home to Haguenau's IUT and the municipal media library since 1996.

The architecture, Louis XVI style with neo-classical influences, is distinguished by its portal decorated with triglyphs, garlands and pine apples. Built of sandstone, bricks and stones, the building includes a basement, three square floors and a vaulted vault. Ranked a historic monument in 1990, it illustrates the evolution of public use, from medical assistance to education and culture.

The site was also used as a setting for the film Prisons of Women (1958), shot in the enclosure of the central house. Its history reflects social and prison changes in France, from the Ancien Régime to contemporary rehabilitation in a university and cultural space.

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