Priory of Saint Lazarus and Lunier hospice

The Saint-Lazare leper hospital, later transformed into a priory, then a castle or Saint-Lazare Villa, and finally the Lunier Hospice, is a complex of buildings listed in the General Inventory of Cultural Heritage and now incorporated into the Robert-Badinter School Complex in Blois, Loir-et-Cher, France.

Founded between 1116 and 1126 by Count Theobald IV of Blois and Geoffroy of Lèves, Bishop of Chartres, the Saint-Lazare leper hospital was originally intended for the isolation of people suffering from leprosy. Following the disappearance of the disease, the institution became, in the 16th century, a priory belonging to the Congregation of France (the Génovéfains). Rebuilt and altered in the 18th century, the priory was confiscated as national property in 1791 before being sold two years later to Nicolas Chambon de Montaux, mayor of Paris.

Subsequently transferred to several owners, including the father of Victor Hugo, the priory ultimately passed to a financier named Jean-Simon Chambert-Péan in 1834. He then erected a villa (or château) on the site of the former monastery and planted the estate with numerous tree species. Sold to the department of Loir-et-Cher in 1861, the Chambert-Péan estate was incorporated into the departmental asylum of Loir-et-Cher, then directed by Dr. Jules Lunier. Expanded with numerous additional buildings (the Lunier Hospice, thermal baths and annex villas), the asylum was finally closed by the Germans during the Occupation in 1943. Since the Liberation of France, the estate and the former hospice buildings have housed the Robert-Badinter School Complex, whose original premises were destroyed by bombing at the beginning of the Second World War.