Bretonneau hospital, Medical facility in Tours, France.
Bretonneau hospital is the oldest unit of the Tours regional university hospital centre, occupying a quadrilateral of nearly 15 hectares in western Tours bounded by boulevard Tonnellé, rue Walwein, rue de l'Hospitalité and rue Victor-Hugo. Its chapel and the facade and roof of the former military hospital were listed as monuments historiques on 21 October 1992. The site mixes 17th-century long buildings with later and modern blocks.
The facility was named after Pierre Bretonneau, a physician whose work advanced medical science and shaped healthcare in the region. Its architectural elements from the 19th century were later recognized as a historical landmark.
The hospital carries the name of Pierre-Fidèle Bretonneau, who worked here and whose pupils included Armand Trousseau and Alfred Velpeau. The Cour des Militaires recalls the wounded of the Grande Armée treated on site in 1814. A royal surgery college founded in 1766 was authorised to hold practical dissection courses on cadavers.
The hospital lies west of the city centre, inside a quadrilateral formed by boulevard Tonnellé and rue Walwein (north-south) and rue de l'Hospitalité and rue Victor-Hugo (east-west), on almost 15 hectares. The Sainte-Anne stream bed, filled from 1774, now carries the Jardin botanique de Tours. The Direction du Personnel occupies the Cour des Militaires, named for the wounded of the Grande Armée housed here in 1814.
The Cour des Militaires, now housing the personnel department, recalls 1814, when the hospital temporarily became a military hospital for wounded soldiers of the Grande Armée. The name preserves that episode.
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