Hospices de Beaune
Look up before you look for the entrance. The Hospices de Beaune, also called the Hôtel-Dieu, is a Flamboyant Gothic hospital crowned with roofs of glazed Burgundy tiles, and that patterned roof is the image the whole town is known for. It is the most visited monument in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, ahead of the citadel in Besançon, so expect company.
The story starts in the 15th century with two people: Nicolas Rolin, chancellor to the dukes of Burgundy, and his wife Guigone de Salins, who founded the hospital together. They gave it more than walls. The Hospices owns its own vineyard estate, and its wine has historically been sold at auction to pay for running the house. That auction, the vente des Hospices de Beaune, still ties this building to every bottle you will see in town.
The hospital stayed in use until the 1960s, which is remarkable for a medieval foundation. It has been a listed historic monument since 1862 and belongs to the World Heritage listing of the Climats, the vineyards of Burgundy. Today it is a museum of the history of medicine, and its great treasure is the Last Judgment, a polyptych by Rogier van der Weyden.
Is it worth the ticket? If you only pay for one thing in Beaune, make it this: the building and the van der Weyden are why people come. Give it about an hour. Then walk 30 m, one minute, to the place where the Hospices' wine story turns into something you can taste.
