The large office of the able poor

In 1534, the Grand Bureau des Pauvres Valides (The large office of the able poor) was created in Rouen, the embryo of the future general hospital. At that time, 15% of the population of Rouen could not meet their needs. The invalid poor included the elderly, foundlings, the infirm and the incurable. This office was a management body responsible for the economy and administration of these destitute, non-sick people. It is also in charge of judging free of charge the trials and disputes concerning them. It is composed of 13 administrators, chosen from among the councillors of the Parliament of Normandy, the aldermen and the canons.

These people do not have their own premises. They were therefore forced to hold their meetings in different parts of the town. They were to wander from one place to another for 112 years, since it was only in 1646 that they were able to move into their own premises.

In 1602, Claude Groulard, first president of the Parliament of Normandy, bought for 3,900 pounds a large plot of partially built land, a former dried-up marshland, located on part of the Martainville suburb and bordering the Célestins convent, founded in 1445.

The first buildings were erected there between 1603 and 1623, and then in stages until 1651, when the first chapel was inaugurated on the day of Pentecost. Their location corresponds more or less to that of the current Cour de Germont.

It was in 1646, on Easter Day, that the administrators of the office of the able-bodied poor were finally able to move into modest wooden buildings covered with thatch. These original buildings, which have completely disappeared over the years, were erected without any overall plan, with the sole aim of satisfying the pressing needs of the population and above all of housing foundlings.

Then, in 1681, the large office for the able-bodied poor officially became a general hospital by Edict of King Louis XIV "establishing the General Hospital for the confinement of the poor beggars of the City and Suburbs of Rouen (sic)".