Beaune

Beaune lies among the vineyards of Burgundy, a town whose wines attracted merchants from distant cities such as Milan and Bruges. Its Hôtel-Dieu, with its great hall for the sick and poor, was founded in an age when war, disease and hunger afflicted the region. The hospital joined charitable care to the wealth and artistic ambition of the Burgundian court.

In 1443 Nicolas Rolin, chancellor to Duke Philip the Good, and his wife Guigone de Salins established the Hôtel-Dieu. They endowed it to care for poor patients, and its chapel and painted altarpiece gave the hospital a place of prayer as well as treatment. Gifts of vineyards later helped sustain its work, linking Beaune's charitable foundation to the wine country around it.