The Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune is one of the finest examples of Burgundian Gothic architecture in France, and also the most photographed building in the region. Its spectacular polychrome tiled roof — geometric patterns in yellow, green, brown and black — was assembled from glazed Flemish-style tiles and has been dazzling visitors since the 15th century. The interior courtyard is even more striking, with its painted timber gallery wrapping all four sides and a well at the centre.
Inside, the Grande Salle des Povres — the charity ward where patients slept in red-curtained beds arranged in rows beneath a vast timber vault — has been preserved exactly as it looked when it was in use. At the far end hangs the altarpiece that alone justifies the entrance fee: Rogier van der Weyden's monumental Last Judgement (1451), a polyptych of intense psychological power showing a gold-robed Christ, the weighing of souls, and the damned tumbling toward hell with extraordinary realism. The museum section also holds the original pharmacy, illuminated manuscripts, and Flemish tapestries.
Allow at least ninety minutes, and take the audio guide if you want the building's hospital history to make sense beyond the photo-stop courtyard. Around the November wine auction the whole town gets busy: the charity sale that once funded care for the poor is still one of Burgundy's major calendar events.