_Situated in the rue Saint-Julien, suburb of Saint-Sever._
The _freres de Saint-Yon_, having been invited, in 1705, to come and
establish themselves in Rouen, by the archbishop Nicolas Colbert and the
first president Nicolas Camus de Pont-Carre, they accordingly purchased
the portion of ground, which bears their name, in 1708. They erected the
church themselves without the assistance of an architect, even acting as
masons and workmen. The first stone was laid on the 7th june 1728. This
edifice is of remarkable execution. In the exterior, its elevation is
about ninety six feet including a lantern of about thirty, which stands
above the transept of the edifice. In the interior, the length is one
hundred and twenty five feet and the breadth twenty five feet. On the
16th of july 1734, the _Freres de Saint-Yon_, carried with great pomp,
to their Church, the remains of their founder, the venerable Lasalle,
who died in 1719, and was buried in the church of Saint-Sever.
Independently of poor children, who were instructed by the monks
according to their condition, they likewise received incorrigible
children, who were sent by their parents to be taken care of; they also
received a limited number of insane persons, thirty were habitually kept
here at the expence of their families.
From the time when the _Freres de Saint-Yon_, as also all other
religious communities, were suppressed, untill 1820, the house of
Saint-Yon, became successivly a revolutionary prison, a barrack, a
_grenier d'abondance_, or corn store house, a house of detention for
spanish prisoners, an hospital for wounded soldiers in 1814, and a poor
house. This last establishment was one of the most considerable of this
description; but, it was suppressed in 1820, by royal ordonance.
Already in the preceding year, the _Conseil general_ of the departement
of the Seine-Inferieure had taken into consideration the deplorable
state, to which the unfortunate insane were reduced, and they resolved
to alleviate their wretched condition. It had been represented to them
that these unfortunate people could not receive in the hospitals of
Rouen, Havre or Dieppe, where there were great numbers of them shut up,
the great attention, which their position required, or not even those
which humanity demanded.
The _conseil general_ on a proposition from Mr Malouet, then prefect
of the departement, voted the establishment of a special asylum for the
insane belonging to the departement. The buildings and dependencies of
the ancient monastery of Saint-Yon were designated as being fit for that
purpose. The situation of the place at the extremity of the suburb, and
in a healthy situation, and the numerous plantations which it would be
easy to make in the large gardens which surround the establishment,
appeared as many favourable circumstances, to fix the choice of the
administration.
Therefore, in 1821, they entered into a contract for the building of
five different courts for the treatement of insane persons.
On the 25th August 1822, on the feast of Saint-Louis, the prefect Mr
de Vanssay laid the first stone of the establishement.
From that time the works were carried on with activity. Already in July
1825, fifty seven patients had been admitted. This asylum contains at
this time, 390 boarders and 150 poors at the charge of the departement.
It occupies a superficies of nine or ten hectares. The inmates are taken
care of by the sisters of Saint-Joseph of Cluny.
The admirable order which reigns in the establishment, the internal
management to which the insane are subjected, have already attracted the
attention of foreign medical men, who are charged with the treatement of
the same malady in the hospitals of their own countries. It may be said
that this asylum has, for several years served as a model to all the
others.