Salpêtrière - The Story of a Hospital

On the 31st August 1997, the world’s most popular Princess, Diana, was involved in a car accident in a Paris tunnel, she was taken to the intriguingly named Salpêtrière Hospital where she died a few hours later at the age of 36.

Salpêtrière Hospital began life as the saltpetre (gunpowder) factory in King Louis XIV’s arsenal. In the mid-17th century it was decided to move the arsenal to the other side of the river Seine and on the vacated land on the left bank a hospital was built which retained the name Salpêtrière. It rapidly became a despised detention centre for errant or simply unfortunate women, many of them prostitutes. But with the introduction of kindness and caring it was able to recover and, with the beginnings of psychiatry and neurology, became recognised as one of the leading hospitals in the world. It is now a busy general teaching hospital housing the medical school of France’s most famous university, the Sorbonne.

This book tells how it recovered from the Gates of Hell to become the world famous hospital that it is today: ‘From tyranny and horror to caring and renown’ ... and more.