The Hospice Comtesse Museum is located at Lille. It is housed in the former Notre-Dame Hospital, founded in 1237 by the Countess Jeanne of Flanders in her own palace.
In the historical heart of the city, the museum offers a dive into the daily architectural and artistic life of Lille from the 13th to the 18th century. The discovery of the buildings themselves, around the main courtyard, built and remodeled from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, reveal an architectural panorama of the first order.
On the ground floor is the interior of a Flemish house from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. You can admire ceramic tiles, sculptures, Flemish furniture, goldsmiths. Also worth seeing are the chapel, the pharmacy and the medicinal garden which testify to the religious and hospitable vocation of the site.
Upstairs, which once housed the dormitory of the nuns, are exhibited collections of art representing daily life in Lille during the Ancien Régime. Finally, overlooking the main courtyard, the old sick room dating from the 15th century hosts temporary exhibitions, including contemporary art.
Combining ethnography and fine arts, the museum is open every day except Monday morning and Tuesday. Visit possible with audio guide. Price: 2.60 and 3.70 euros. Free the first Sunday of the month. Information on +33 3 28 36 84 00.