Saint-Pierre/Sint-Pieter

(Hospital) (Rue Haute)

   The Saint-Pierre hospital was founded as a leprosarium in 1174. The care of leprosy was gradually discontinued as the affliction was eliminated. The last leper died here in 1740. In 1227, the convent of Saint-Pierre-op-Brussel was founded to care for wounded Crusaders returning from the Holy Land. A convent of Augustinian nuns operated here until the decree dissolving religious orders was issued in 1783 under the Austrian regime.

   The Hôpital royal Saint-Pierre, the only royal hospital in the Austrian Netherlands, opened in 1788, and many of its supplies were secured from convents and monasteries closed in the wake of the 1783 decree. Medical courses were begun and wards for the incurably sick, expectant mothers, and the insane were added. In 1803, Napoléon Bonaparte gave the facility a generous financial gift. A school of medicine was established in 1823, which was merged with the faculty of medicine of the Université libre de Bruxelles on the latter's founding in 1834. The hospital was rebuilt in stages from 1849 to 1878. These facilities were closed in 1923 and the current complex was erected from 1929 to 1935 to a design by architect Jean-Baptiste Dewin. The hospital includes the Institut Jules Bordet, which undertakes cancer research, and the Paul Héger clinic, both created in 1939.