Hospice de la Salpêtrière

Pitié-Salpêtrière
AP-HP
Geography
Location	Paris, France
Organisation
Care system	Public
Hospital type	Teaching
Services
Emergency department	Yes
Beds	1,603
Links
Website	http://www.aphp.fr
Lists	Hospitals in France

The Hôpital universitaire Pitié-Salpêtrière (French: [opital ynivɛʁsitɛʁ pitje salpɛtʁijɛʁ]) is a celebrated teaching hospital in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. Part of the Assistance publique – Hôpitaux de Paris and a teaching hospital of Sorbonne University, it is one of Europe's largest hospitals.

The Salpêtrière was originally a gunpowder factory (saltpetre being a constituent of gunpowder), but in 1656 at the direction of Louis XIV, it was converted into a hospice for the poor of Paris. It served as a prison for prostitutes, and a holding place for the mentally disabled, criminally insane, epileptics, and the poor; it was also notable for its population of rats. Although the Pitié-Salpêtrière was much admired for the architectural ambitions of Libéral Bruant, it provided unsatisfactory living conditions for its inhabitants. The building was enlarged in 1684.

On the eve of the Revolution, it had become the world's largest hospital, with a capacity of 10,000 patients plus 300 prisoners, largely prostitutes swept from the streets of Paris. From La Salpêtrière they were paired with convicts and forcibly expatriated to New France.

During the September massacres of 1792, the Salpêtrière was stormed on the night of 3/4 September by a mob from the impoverished working-class district of the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, with the avowed intention of releasing the detained street-girls; 134 of the prostitutes were released; twenty-five madwomen were less fortunate and were dragged, some still in their chains, into the streets and murdered.

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Wikipedia