From 1472 onwards, as the Cordeliers monks had given up on any hospital facilities for more than a century and a half, the poor of the parish of Bourgneuf no longer had any help. This situation led to the creation of the Bourgneuf General Hospital in the 16th century.
The Cordeliers, a mendicant order, was the other name given to the Franciscans.
Exceptionally, they were granted the right to own property in exchange for the obligation to found a hospital for the poor in Bourgneuf.
A former outbuilding of the Cordeliers convent now houses the Pays de Retz museum.
Unfortunately, they were much more interested in the prosperity of their possessions, which included numerous salt marshes, than in the health of the town's poor.
As a result, they became very unpopular. The name given to a nearby street, "Sans-Charité", is a reminder of the real or supposed avarice of these Cordeliers monks. In the middle of the 18th century, they were fined heavily and ordered to return a large amount of their property to the hospital.
In 1628, Pierre Bourgeois, sieur de la Basse-Cour, lawyer and royal notary, had the generous idea of filling the gap left by the Cordeliers. Next to a house he had bought in the rue du Pont Edelin, he had two or three small rooms built to house the sick.
The hospital was born, but it would develop slowly.
Between 1699 and 1720, the estate was able to expand by absorbing many of the surrounding houses, thanks to donations from generous parishioners.
The hospital buildings, as they still stand in the 20th century, were constructed between 1708 and 1722.
Chapel of the old and new hospitals
Let's go back to the time of the Cordeliers....
They had built the old hospice in their enclosure. In 1427, they added a chapel dedicated to Saint John and adjoining their own church.
The new hospital, built in 1628 by Pierre Bourgeois, had no chapel. However, the chapel of the Saint-Laurent priory still stood nearby. It is highly likely that it served the new establishment.
This priory is located in the nearby area known as La Préauté. Built on the hillside, it became the first religious centre of the future Bourgneuf. With the help of the Augustinians of Sainte-Marie-de-Pornic, it welcomed pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela.
As leprosy spread throughout France on the return from the Crusades, many leprosaria were built on elevated, well-ventilated sites close to rivers, ponds, marshes, etc., but also close to market towns to provide for their needs. The lord of Machecoul had a château built next to this care establishment, the château du Bois-aux-nains (or Bois Onnins), which was at the origin of the town's development.
It was in 1717 that Abbé Racine gave his consent to a union between the priory and the hospital.
However, in 1718 (or 1716), while major extensions were underway, a violent storm destroyed the priory chapel, which fell into ruin. As a result, it was decided to take advantage of the work to build a chapel specifically for the hospital. In 1721, the hospital received the priory's possessions (marshes, land and tenant farms in La Préauté).
Description of the hospital chapel
The hospital chapel was completed in 1722, as evidenced by an inscription to the right of the entrance.
The present chapel, located at the centre of the hospital building, is devoid of style.
However, it does have a number of noteworthy features:
A huge altarpiece dating from 1722. It depicts the Assumption. Celebrated on 15 August, it commemorates the moment when the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, "ascended into heaven".
Above the altarpiece is a 15th-century polychrome wooden statue of Saint Lawrence. It comes from the former chapel of the Saint-Laurent priory, the only reminder of the priory. The statue is set in a niche surrounded by cherubs, gilded in 1779. In his left hand, Saint Laurent holds the grill from which he died (martyred on a grill in Rome in 258).
A small tufa cross crowned the roof of the hospital chapel, giving its date of foundation as 1713. It was only just saved when the old buildings were demolished. It now adorns the entrance to the small remaining portion of the original chapel included in the new buildings.
Extensively altered since its construction, the current hospital and its buildings house a long-stay hospital (EHPAD), the historic part of which is limited to the chapel, the bell tower of which can still be seen from the rue du pont Edelin.
