Hospiz Comtesse Museum (Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse)

The Hospice Comtesse Museum, in the heart of Old Lille, was formerly a hospital that operated from 1237 right up until 1939. Among the multiple buildings on-site, some of which date back to the 15th century, there’s the former hospital ward with a paneled barrel-vault ceiling, and a chapel decorated with the coats of arms of the hospital’s benefactors. The buildings, which also housed a community of Augustine nuns, are centered around two courtyards and a garden of plants with medicinal properties.

The museum is designed to recreate the feeling of a small Flemish convent—on the ground floor you can visit the kitchen, lined with Delft-inspired tiles, and see works of art and sculpture, while upstairs you can tour the nun’s dormitory, where exhibits show what daily life was like in Lille in times past. Learn more about the history of the city with a guided walking tour.