Saint-Côme hotel, Private mansion and lecture hall in central Montpellier, France.
The Saint-Côme hotel stands at 32 Grand'rue Jean-Moulin in Montpellier, built between 1747 and 1757 to plans by Jean-Antoine Giral. Its pale stone street facade has a triangular pediment, three tall arched windows with balconies, and three ground openings framed by paired columns. Behind the street wing, across an inner courtyard, stood the anatomy amphitheatre.
François de Lapeyronie, a surgeon, left part of his fortune for an anatomy amphitheatre modelled on the Collège Saint-Côme in Paris. Jean-Antoine Giral designed the building, constructed between 1747 and 1757. The surgery school was suppressed in 1752 and the edifice sold for the Nation's benefit; the inaugural surgery lesson was given on 25 April 1757. A 1794 decree merged the surgery and medicine schools into the Montpellier health school.
The building once served as a center for medical learning where students gathered to observe anatomical demonstrations in its theatrical spaces. The layout and design still reflect that teaching purpose from centuries ago.
The building at 32 Grand'rue Jean-Moulin is occupied by the Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de l'Hérault since 2017, so the interior is not open to visitors. The facade, with its pediment, three balconied arched windows and paired columns, can be seen from the street, where a tiered stone fountain stands before the central arch.
The anatomy amphitheatre stood across an inner courtyard from the street building, so surgeons met and taught in two separate structures. François de Lapeyronie funded it through a legacy, asking for a hall modelled on the one at the Collège Saint-Côme in Paris. The inaugural surgery lecture was given there on 25 April 1757.
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