FINANCES

The main way to keep the hospital up and running was by raising money from donors and renting out the land it owned to be cultivated. This made it possible to buy food and furnishings, and the materials needed to take care of the sick.

Even still, the hospital struggled to survive on these sums and some beds had to be closed at times due to a lack of sufficient funds to accommodate all the patients.

In 1693, King Louis XIV ordered the dissolution of the various leper houses, so that their assets could be made available to newer hospitals. Nuits benefited from this edict by recovering the real estate of the Saint-Denis de Meuilley, Saint-Bernard de Premeaux, Sainte-Madeleine d’Argilly and Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Nuits leper houses. So the Saint-Laurent Hospital expanded to include numerous plots of land and vineyards which, over time, enabled it to set up its wine estate. The wine was used in church services, given to patients or sold.

The first “sale of fine wines and grape marc” was held on April 3, 1938, at 2 pm, in the Henri de Bahèzre hall which is now the Nuiton Cinema. These sales were dropped after the Second World War and only resumed in 1962. They ensure the estate can continue to operate and, more importantly, provide investment funds so the hospital can carry out renovation work.

And so, despite several tough times, the hospital still has sustainable funding today, since the wine sale continues to be held every year on the second Sunday in March.