Notre-Dame à la Rose Hospital's wild flower garden

The high walls of white brick walls of the Notre-Dame à la Rose Hospital reveal a lovely enclosed garden. Used once as the sisters' cemetery, it was replanted with herbs and wild flowers. Only a few funeral stones witness to its past.

Take a stroll

The South-West corner of the garden belong to an 18th century building used as the hospital's distillery at the time. The garden itself also hides a cooler room from the 19th century, made of bricks and still perfectly preserved. The ice cut in winter on the frozen Dendre river was stocked there, keeping so well there still would be a metre high the following August. It proved useful for dressings, keeping drinks fresh, preserving meat and was still in use during the First World War.

Your visit

• An audio guide will tell you all about the wild flowers
• A documentary will explain how to use plants to heal and cook
• An exhibition presents plant-based medicine and the garden's fauna
• Workshops and events (wellbeing, recipes...) are organised through the year

The gardens can be accessed when visiting the Hospital.