Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges, Historic hospital in Nuits-Saint-Georges, France

The Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges is a 17th-century baroque hospital and retirement home, still in operation. Its light pinkish-beige stone facade rises to a dark slate roof, topped by a square clock tower with a domed cupola and cross; a central arched niche holds a statue on a pedestal, flanked by two carved stone panels. A wrought-iron gate inscribed "HOPITAL CIVIL" stands in front.

Founded in 1270 under the patronage of the dukes of Burgundy Robert II and Hugues IV, the hospice was partly destroyed during the civil and religious wars. In 1633 Guillaume Labye, procurator of Louis XIII, bought a house on the bank of the Meuzin to relaunch it. The present hospital was built in 1692 at the initiative of Antide Midan, a mépartiste priest of Saint-Symphorien, and run by the Sisters Hospitalières; in 1694 Louis XIV attached the domains of four leper houses to it.

The hospice is dedicated to Saint George, patron saint of chivalry, of Nuits-Saint-Georges and of Burgundy. Its wine estate, built from charitable donations, covers 12.5 hectares across 11 appellations in Nuits-Saint-Georges, Gevrey-Chambertin and Premeaux-Prissey. Since 1962 the wines have been sold at auction each March to fund the facility; the 2024 vintage sale raised nearly €860,000.

The building is still a working hospital and retirement home, so access is limited to the parts open to the public; the wrought-iron gate marked "HOPITAL CIVIL" gives onto the facade. The apothicairerie and the laboratory were classified as monuments historiques in 2017. The Hospices' wine is sold at auction each year over the weekend of the first half of March.

The nursing sisters here received the Military Medal of the Legion of Honor in 1870 for their service during the Franco-German War. This recognition shows how the facility played an important role beyond its everyday medical work.