The wine of Beaune, the wine that has maintained a hospital since the 15th century
Durante la Edad Media comenzaron a florecer los hospitales por toda Europa y allí hasta donde llegaban las órdenes religiosas (Templarios y Hospitalarios). Estaban vinculados a monasterios u órdenes (como el hospital de Jerusalén de la Orden de los Caballeros de San Juan) y atendidos principalmente por monjes o clérigos. En estos hospitales no sólo se atendía a los enfermos sino también a peregrinos, pobres, niños abandonados… y, a diferencia de los médicos laicos, estos monjes médicos practicaban la medicina y la caridad. Era una medicina caritativa y limitada a unos cuantos tratados no censurados y, lógicamente, sin ninguna capacidad de investigación o experimentación. Lógicamente, en alguna intervención quirúrgica -por llamarlo de alguna forma- alguno de sus pacientes se quedaba en la mesa de operaciones y la culpa de la muerte de un hombre suponía una pesada e ingrata carga para aquellos monjes que practicaban la medicina por caridad. En 1215, el Papa Inocencio III decidió poner fin a aquella práctica y promulgó la bula Ecclesia abhorret a sanguine (La Iglesia aborrece el derramamiento de sangre), con la que oficialmente se prohibía la práctica quirúrgica a los clérigos. A partir del siglo XIII, los reyes, los señores feudales y las propias ciudades se iniciaron en esta labor benéfico-asistencial y fundaron hospitales seglares, como el Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune en Francia –Hôtel-Dieu, “casa de Dios”, se suele utilizar en Francia para denominar al hospital más grande de un pueblo o ciudad-.
Plague, bandits and the Hundred Years' War had ravaged the French countryside and peasants were forced to move to the cities in search of protection and food for their families. To care for the sick and, above all, the poor who wandered the streets begging for a crust of bread, Nicolas Rolin, chancellor of the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good, and Guigone de Salins, his third wife, founded the Hotel-Dieu de Beaune (Hospital or Hospice of Beaune) in 1443. les sœurs hospitalièresa sisterhood of women who would take care of the patients. Moreover, Rolin left everything tied up tight from the beginning. The founding charter, approved by Pope Eugene IV and Philip the Good, provided for tax exemptions for the institution and, above all, for its management and operation to be independent of Church and State.
In 1457, Guillemette Levernier made the first donation of vines to the hospital, a tradition that has been maintained for centuries and which has enabled the hospital to supply itself with a product that is still in use today. with healing properties and to be the source of funding for its upkeep. In 1859 it was decided that wine would be sold at public auction on the third Sunday in November in the large central hall, known as the Hall of the Poor. Today, the wine-growing domain of the hospital is close to 60 hectares (50 hectares of pinot noir and the rest of chardonnay) and produces one of the best wines in Burgundy. The auction, which has been run by Christie's since 2005, has been held continuously and remains a charity auction. In 2015, a record-breaking €480,000 was paid for a cask of Burgundy wine from the Hospice de Beaune. On that occasion, the proceeds went to the victims of the Paris attacks, the Curie Cancer Institute and the Foundation for Cerebral Vascular Accident Research (AVC).
The Virgin and Chancellor Rolin - Jan van Eyck (Louvre Museum)
In the main building, one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture - listed as a French National Heritage site - and now a museum, one can still see Nicolas' declaration of love for Guigone, the inscription seulle ("only her") on the floor tiles.
