"Founded by Jean de Le Cambe known as “Gantois”, alderman of Lille and bourgeois who made his fortune in the alabaster trade.
The Deed of Foundation of the Gantois Hospice, dated July 3, 1462, expresses the will of Jean de Le Cambe, known as the Gantois, to make this new building a place where thirteen destitute old people. This was made possible because the trader had made a fortune thanks to his skills as a trader specializing in alabaster with England.
This institution was attached to the collegiate church of Saint-Pierre and not to the parish of Saint-Sauveur on which it should have depended. The location of the hospice was favorable to its mission since its neighborhood was quite poor, which also explained the presence of other religious and Christian charitable foundations. The Hospitaller Sisters, Augustinians, were eight in number at the beginning.
Gradually, from the 18th century to the 20th century, the hospice became a real hospital (in the modern sense of the term).
At the time of the Second World War, the Gantois hospice welcomed elderly people of modest means. In September 1939, they were evacuated to the coast. When in May 1940, the battle of the pocket of Lille takes place, the building welcomes wounded soldiers and prisoners.
It was listed among the historical monuments of Lille on August 8, 1923 and August 31, 1967. It remained in operation until 1995. In 2003, it was transformed into a luxury hotel: the Hermitage Gantois.
The building was originally composed of a ward and a chapel, where Jean de Le Cambe was buried and where you can admire a Stations of the Cross dating from the 15th century, and other buildings centered on four courtyards.
The hospice was enlarged in 1664 and 1672 to be equipped with a house for the chaplain (to the left of the chapel) and a reception house (where there is a niche housing a small statue representing Saint John -Baptiste, to the right of the chapel); the chapel has since benefited from a special altar. There are also the remains of a fresco depicting Saint Piat and a cephalophore saint, carrying his skull in his hands.
Currently its visitors can also admire the large living room, the library and the cloister which have kept the charm of the old."