Hospice de la Charité, Historical monument in Mâcon, France

The Hospice de la Charité, also called hôtel Soufflot, stands at 249 rue Carnot. Its four wings enclose a square courtyard raised four metres because of Saône floods, and the cellars sit at ground level. The curved Carnot facade has a lower storey of large pale stone blocks and upper levels of red brick with pale stone quoins and bands, tall white-framed windows and louvered shutters.

Vincent de Paul founded the Charité in 1621 after counting several hundred poor during a stay in Mâcon. The original houses near the Saône walls held 143 residents by 1721 and were demolished as unsanitary. Rebuilding began on 9 July 1752 to plans by Jacques-Germain Soufflot, directed by Michel Minoya, and was completed in November 1761.

The chapel, listed as a monument in 1982, has an elliptical plan topped by a starry dome. Two tiers of tribunes linked by arcades let patients attend services from the hospice floors without descending. The wrought-iron balustrades of the galleries are themselves protected. On either side of the entrance door, alms boxes read "Tronc pour les pauvres de La Charité – 1762".

The building stands at 249 rue Carnot, with a second facade on rue Nationale; the Carnot side holds the chapel door and the hospice door. The chapel, listed in 1982, has an elliptical interior under a starry dome, with two tiers of tribunes reached from the hospice floors. The whole building was classified in 2013 and its rehabilitation was completed in February 2021.

Beside the hospice door on Rue Carnot is a wooden foundling wheel, one of the few surviving in France. Mothers placed newborns in it and rang a bell; the sister on duty took the child from the other side without seeing the mother. Lamartine described it as having hands to receive but no eyes to see. It fell out of use after the practice was banned in 1904.