Sainte-Anne Hospital

In an edict issued on July 30, 1863, Napoleon III "state approved" that an asylum be established in Paris for the treatment of mental illness. This hospital was built on a plot of land that was formerly a farm called Saint-Anne, which was in a remote district, but provided forty-four acres that would allow for the construction of a model facility based on the ideas of Jean-Étienne Esquirol and able to accommodate up to 500 patients of both sexes. The program set out by the committee established by Baron Haussmann included plans for a...