Dual role of hospice and confinement facility Around 1530, in response to recurring epidemics such as plague and cholera, a temporary health shelter, or sanitas (Latin for "health"), was established in Tours. It consisted of a wooden structure built near the , west of the city, in a marshy area. By the following century, poverty and vagrancy had become more pressing issues than disease, as the city's economy declined. In 1641,
Louis XIII granted an annual subsidy of 4,000 livres to the city to establish and operate an almshouse. The institution was formally established in 1656, during the reign of
Louis XIV, as the General Hospital of Charity, serving both to assist the poor and to confine them to maintain public order. Three 80-meter-long buildings were constructed on the site of the current hospital, designated respectively for men, women, and administrative services. Over time, the institution gradually reverted to its original function as an asylum. In 1766, a Royal College of Surgery was established on the premises, with authorization to conduct practical dissection courses on cadavers. The hospital continued to operate in this manner until the French Revolution, although hygiene conditions were often inadequate, with the Sainte-Anne stream serving as a channel for hospital wastewater.
Limited impact during the Revolution During the
War in the Vendée, the Charity Hospital was converted into a military hospital. In 1793, it was subject to laws governing
nationalized property. By 1796, it was reinstated in its original buildings, which had not been sold, and received additional property from assets confiscated from
émigrés and the Church.
Consolidation of Tours' hospital institutions A significant development in the hospital's history occurred in 1803 when the Charity Hospital merged with two other medical institutions in Tours: the Hôtel-Dieu, located near the
cathedral, and the Madeleine Hospital in
Saint-Pierre-des-Corps. This consolidation led to overcrowding, to the extent that the hospital chapel was temporarily used to accommodate patients. and its former course became the site of the
Tours Botanical Garden in 1831. The unification of the city's hospices initiated a period of administrative and structural reorganization that extended through the first half of the 19th century. In 1809, a new administrative structure was implemented with the appointment of a management committee, which included, for a time, the father of
Honoré de Balzac. In 1814, the hospital briefly resumed a military role by admitting wounded soldiers from the
Grande Armée.
Pierre-Fidèle Bretonneau and practiced at the hospital, while
Armand Trousseau and
Alfred Velpeau completed part of their medical training under
Bretonneau before continuing their careers in Paris. and members of the Moreau
family, particularly
Jacques-Joseph Moreau and his son
Paul Moreau de Tours,—each of whom served as chief surgeon and actively participated in hospital affairs. They promoted surgical education, advanced medical research, and contributed to public health. Louis Tonnellé worked to introduce free consultations, and Thomas Moreau highlighted difficulties in hospital access, noting in an 1844 report the disadvantages caused by the hospital’s isolation. Nonetheless, the efforts of these physicians helped transform the hospital into a center of advanced medical knowledge shaped by a dedicated medical staff.
Organization of the modern hospital Following the 1803 merger of Tours' hospices, the general hospital underwent a gradual process of adaptation. The relocation of services from the Hôtel-Dieu and the Madeleine Hospital took several years, with the complete transfer of surgical wards beginning in 1816. and an asylum for the mentally ill. Between 1815 and 1848, the hospital was supplied with water from an
artesian well. clarifying the separation between medicine and surgery. By the late 1820s, civilian and military hospital functions were separated, each maintaining independent surgery and medicine departments while remaining connected. During the first half of the century, hospital organization remained provisional. Space was utilized to its maximum capacity while construction proceeded incrementally. followed in 1873 by the transfer of the women’s surgery wards to the former medicine building. This move brought the women’s surgery wards closer to the maternity ward, both of which were overseen by surgeons, with the maternity ward also staffed by student midwives. In 1875, the construction of a new pavilion called the "Women’s Hospital (Surgery Department)" was initiated and inaugurated in 1879, reflecting a reorganization policy that had begun in the 1830s.
Lyon, and Paris, where 19th-century hospital structures shifted focus from hospitality toward an increasingly medical role. Beginning in 1860, chief surgeon Félix Charles Herpin advocated for limiting the presence of chronic and incurable patients at the General Hospital of Tours, reforming admission procedures to prioritize patients of scientific interest. This change had a significant impact on medical practice at the hospital. and the presentation of a congenital nasal cleft in 1873, appeared in the
Collected Works of the Medical Society of Indre-et-Loire from as early as 1833. Hospital physicians encountered a wide variety of patients and injuries, prompting them to reorganize departments and classify patients by gender, age, injuries, and ailments. This diversity allowed practitioners to study numerous diseases, observe symptoms, and develop or modify treatments. This environment encouraged students to train in hospitals before attending medical faculties. In the 19th century, the Tours hospital trained several students who later became notable medical professionals, including
Alfred Velpeau. Until 1841, medical education at the hospital was informal. Early in the 19th century, chief surgeon Gouraud introduced a system allowing students to assist with daily tasks. In 1816, the hospital administration expanded this instruction by implementing a curriculum that included courses in materia medica, botany, medical chemistry, practical pharmacy, pathology,
osteology, operative medicine, and forensic medicine. In 1825, the hospital and the Municipal Council of Tours proposed establishing around twenty Secondary Schools of Medicine, but Tours was not selected by the Ministry of the Interior. Despite this, the hospital continued to develop its medical education program, revising the curriculum multiple times until 1841. Following the ordinance of 13 October 1841,
Pierre-Fidèle Bretonneau initiated the creation of a Preparatory School of Medicine and Pharmacy in Tours. The city received royal authorization from King
Louis-Philippe, and the school opened in January 1842. Courses were initially held in a temporary location while a new building was constructed. == From the 20th-century hospital to the University Hospital Center of Tours ==