Recenser, étudier et faire connaître « Saint-Luc » à Pau, un exemple de valorisation du patrimoine asilaire

In the eastern part of the city of Pau, then a major climatic health resort, an insane asylum was established in the 1860s in order to replace an earlier one. The new asylum, which rapidly became short of space in the light of local needs, was the heir to the earlier ‘maison de force’ in the city centre, transformed into an asylum when the health law of 1838 obliged each department to maintain such an establishment. The doctor Auzouy Théodore (1819-1879) first created a farm in 1860, soon turned into an asylum with the help of the departmental architect Gustave Lévy (1826-1885). Its architectural programme, developed in the 1860s, was inspired by French models developed since the 1830s. It was also influenced by reflections and recommendations of the time on how to treat mental disorders. This psychiatric institution has maintained its vocation up to the present day, and is now known as the Centre hospitalier des Pyrénées. The commemoration of the place’s 150th anniversary was an opportunity for some reflection on how to interpret this asylum heritage. The inventory work on the city’s built heritage gives considerable unpublished information on this site and on its architecture, but the institution also presents many other heritage values, including the memories its walls contain. How can these resources best be exploited? The monographic and comparative approach revealed the characteristics of architectural forms that were intended to be therapeutic, and gave rise to more curiosity about this exceptional place