Musée des Hospices Civils de Lyon

The Musée des Hospices Civils de Lyon is a medical history museum housed in the former Hôtel-Dieu hospital building in the city. It displays thousands of medical objects including surgical instruments, old pharmacy stocks, and artworks spanning different periods.

The museum was created in 1935 following destruction of another hospital building and has preserved medical collections since then. The surviving historical rooms like the old pharmacy show how medical care was organized in the city over a long period.

The museum shows how people once understood and treated illness through old instruments and pharmacy recipes displayed in period rooms. You can see how medical thinking changed across centuries through these everyday objects of care.

The museum sits in an old building complex with multiple levels that you can explore on foot. It works best to visit the collections in sequence since the rooms are spread throughout the historical structure.

Few visitors notice the hidden laboratory rooms tucked under the eaves where medicines were once made. These intimate workspaces give a direct sense of the daily scientific work that happened there.