Hôpital Saint-Louis

The Hôpital Saint-Louis is marked by its jagged, high-pitched roofs of slate and the red brick facades crisscrossed by limestone quoins. King Henry the Fourth ordered its construction in sixteen oh seven to isolate plague victims outside the city walls. When the Black Death swept through Paris, the hospital housed thousands in a sprawling grid of courtyards and chapels. Today, the wards remain, but the medical focus shifted long ago from managing epidemics to serving as a specialized center for dermatology and oncology.