In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu ("hostel of God") was originally a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church. Nowadays these buildings or institutions have either kept their function as a hospital, the one in Paris being the oldest and most renowned, or have been converted into hotels, museums, or general purpose buildings (for instance housing a préfecture, the administrative head office of a French department).
Therefore, as a secondary meaning, the term hôtel-Dieu can also refer to the building itself, even if it no longer houses a hospital.
The Hôtel-Dieu in Lyon was founded around the year 1000. Built at the mouth of the only bridge that crossed the Rhone towards 1184/1185, it was completely rebuilt between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was closed in 2010 and in its place there is a luxury hotel and a shopping center.