Phone +33 1 43 96 61 61 | ||
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Address 57 Rue du Maréchal Leclerc, 94410 Saint-Maurice, France Similar Madelonnettes Convent, Bastille, Schiller Theater, Charenton – Écoles, École Vétérinaire de Maiso | ||
Charenton was a lunatic asylum, founded in 1645 by the Frères de la Charité or Brothers of Charity in Charenton-Saint-Maurice, now Saint-Maurice, Val-de-Marne, France.
Charenton was known for its humanitarian treatment of patients, especially under its director the Abbé de Coulmier in the early 19th century. He showed a remarkable aptitude for understanding psychoanalysis theory. He used the technique of art therapy to help patients manifest their madness through physical art forms.
Famous prisoners
Famous prisoners were held in the Charenton asylum including Latude, the Comte de Sanois and Marquis de Sade (from 1801 until his death in 1814 at the age of 74).
The noted Belgian-born musicologist and composer Jérôme-Joseph de Momigny also died at the Charenton asylum, in 1842. The caricaturist André Gill died there in 1885. The mathematician André Bloch spent the last three decades of his life there, and mathematician Joseph-Émile Barbier also stayed there before being found and brought back into academia by Bertrand.
Today, the psychiatric hospital is known as the Esquirol Hospital (l'Hôpital Esquirol), after Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol who directed the institution in the 19th century. The architect of the 1845 structure was Émile Gilbert.