Hospice Pacheco

(Rue du Grand Hospice)

   The Hospice Pacheco serves as a convalescent home for the elderly and as a corrective training center. The hospice was founded by the wife of Councillor of State Antoine Pacheco as a home for elderly, single women. The neoclassical complex of buildings was constructed between 1824 and 1827. It replaced an old Beguine convent that had also been used as a hospice but which had become dilapidated. City authorities commissioned architect Henri-Louis François to design a structure that would be both functionally and aesthetically pleasing. The buildings are constructed around two courtyards and exhibit a fairly Spartan appearance in keeping with 19th-century strictures that such institutions were to be run following a rigid regimen. Those who violated the rules were punished by confinement to the grounds and a transgressor who committed a second offense was sent to the workhouse. Only the outer walls have been retained following restoration work between 1976 and 1982. The hospice chapel contains four works by François-Joseph Navez.