Architectural detail, Hospices de Beaune, Beaune

Detail of an ornamental weathervane in gilded lead and copper gold leaf on the courtyard facade, at the Les Hospices de Beaune, or Hotel-Dieu de Beaune, a charitable almshouse and hospital for the poor, built 1443-57 by Flemish architect Jacques Wiscrer, and founded by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor of Burgundy, and his wife Guigone de Salins, in Beaune, Cote d'Or, Burgundy, France. There are 56 weathervanes on the buildings, this one showing the coat of arms of Guigone de Salins, with 3 gold keys representing her husband Rolin and a gold crenelated tower on a blue background for herself. Beneath the spire is a star within a sun with curved rays of gilded lead, symbol of charity. The buildings, set around an internal courtyard, are in Northern Renaissance and Flamboyant Gothic style, with half-timber galleries, ornate rooftops with Burgundian glazed tiles in geometric patterns and dormer windows. The hospital was run by the nuns of the order of Les Soeurs Hospitalieres de Beaune, and remained a hospital until the 1970s. The building now houses the Musee de l'Histoire de la Medecine, or Museum of the History of Medicine, and is listed as a historic monument. Picture by Manuel Cohen

Picture No

13434810

Media ID

45119658

Size

4724px x 7087px (7.8MB)

Credit

Manuel Cohen / Mary Evans

Source

Photograph by Manuel Cohen