In Poligny, a talk traces the history of the Montciel hospice, the lives of its residents and its development up to 1948.
About this event in the Jura in Poligny
Montciel : behind a building familiar to Jura residents
The Salon d’Honneur at Poligny town hall hosts the talk “The Montciel departmental hospice for the elderly in Lons-le-Saunier (1852–1948)”. It explores the history of a building now occupied by an educational establishment, but whose functions changed over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Residents of Lons-le-Saunier and the Jura who take the road leading to the wooded heights of Lons-le-Saunier know Montciel well. Its history, however, is less familiar to them. The talk moves beyond this well-known building to explore its past as a place that housed beggars and elderly people.
From construction to the closure of the hospice
Built in 1859–1860, Montciel was intended to house the departmental institution for beggars as well as a hospice for elderly people. Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, it would become the departmental hospice for the elderly.
The presentation will cover its construction, the lives of its residents and the institution’s development in response to historical events. It will follow this history through to its closure in 1948 and its transfer to the Ministry of National Education.
A look at the place of elderly people in society
Beyond the changing building and its uses, this history offers an opportunity to examine how society treated begging and, above all, elderly people. The story of the hospice and its residents will thus be set within this wider development.