Hôpital Notre-Dame à La Rose - Lessines

The Hospital of Our Lady with the Rose has been added to Belgium’s Tentative List earlier this year. The hospital of medieval origin is located in the Walloon town of Lessines, a municipality of 18,000 inhabitants best known as the birth place of painter René Magritte. I visited it on a stormy Saturday as a day trip by car from my home.

Getting There 

The site would become another addition to the Brussels Hotspot – it lies some 55 km south of the Belgian capital. The building is only open in the afternoon, from 14-18.30h, every day except Monday. As Zoe indicated in her review, there is parking right in front of it in a dead end street. However this was full when I arrived, so I ended up at a large (free) public parking just beyond the market square and within walking distance of the hospital. The hospital / museum complex has an informal restaurant on site, which opens already at 12. Entrance to the buildings / museum / gardens costs 13 EUR. French, English and Dutch are all spoken well by the reception staff and most information panels are in those 3 languages as well.

What is it about

The Hospital of Our Lady with the Rose was founded in the 13th century as a charity to accommodate the homeless and poor of the town. It formed a completely autarkic system: it had its own gardens, was a large regional landowner and handicrafts from …

Hôpital Notre-Dame à la Rose claims to be the oldest hospital in Europe. The only Wikipedia article is in Dutch for some reason when though the town of Lessines is in Wallonia. Superlatives don't always get you on the list and I think there needs to be more. It is more of a church-like hospital anyway, I often felt that I'm in a church altogether. The windows are beautiful, the architecture is great, from the outside you wouldn't think it is a hospital (a modern hospital is around the corner to compare).

Inside most is a museum with display cases and an art gallery. You get plenty to see and it's worth the money but I highly recommend the audio guide. The only issue with the site I have are the weird opening hours from 14:00-18:30 (last entry at 17:45!) and naturally closed on Mondays.

Pro tip: There is parking inside the alley so try there first before driving up the hill