Naval Medical School

Like no other in France, the Naval Medical School was founded in 1722. At the time, it was the first in the world. For more than 240 years, the Naval Medical School of Rochefort has trained surgeons for duty on warships.
The professional of Health who were trained here actively participate in exploration trips around the world. Then, the collections of human anatomy, ethnography and natural history, as well as the library, increased.

Today, the Naval Medical School of Rochefort looks like the way it did in the middle of the 19th Century. Powerful and stirring place, it offers a trip in the core of Science to experience and to understand the knowledge of our time.

The site can only be visited on a guided tour by reservation.
It's also home to a small "jardin des simples" (as medicinal plants were known in the Middle Ages), which reflects the town's maritime past. It can be visited free of charge, with no obligation to visit the Ancienne École. The garden boasts a multitude of medicinal plants, as well as aromatic and dyeing plants that echo the voyages of exploration that brought some of them back to Rochefort.

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