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Founded in 1237 by Countess Jeanne of Flanders and Constantinople (c. 1200–1244), the former Hôpital Notre-Dame, later the Hospice Comtesse, has housed the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de la Ville de Lille since 1962. Its rich collections, comprising almost 70,000 works, bear witness to the social and cultural history of this city known in France as the “Capital of Flanders.”

The so-called atmospheric rooms (salles d’ambiance) on the ground floor of the former building of the community evoke both the former hospital vocation of the site and the intimate atmosphere of Flemish homes of times gone by.

Among the twenty-eight northern school paintings on display is a remarkable series of portraits of the counts of Flanders, including dukes and duchesses of Burgundy Philip the Good (1396–1467), Margaret of Bavaria (1363–1424), and Charles the Bold (1433–1477). The collection is further enhanced by paintings by Alexander van Bredael, Otto van Veen, Pieter Bruegel (I), and rare examples of Flemish furniture (such as a three-door buffet and a carved oak cabinet known as a ribbank), enabling visitors to track Lille’s Flemish heritage from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

Florence Raymond, Curator (May 2025)