An hôtel-dieu... a hotel for god? Actually, it's just a hospital, a pre-enlightenment one. No, not pre- lights you switch on, but the Enlightenment, the intellectual one. The institution remains a must see and its history well worth learning about.
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To be honest, an Hôtel-Dieu is only worth visiting for the story it can tell. And this is the story in Saint-Chamond. It all began with a decree issued by Louis XIV, who wanted to confine beggars to hospitals. Not exactly charitable, the idea of shutting away the paupers. Any, to cut a long story short, from then on the town authorities started looking for a building capable of meeting this requirement and that's how, in 1672, the Hôtel-Dieu came to move into its present location. Then began...
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