Charenton (asylum)

Charenton was an insane asylum, founded in 1645 by the Frères de la Charité in Charenton-Saint-Maurice (now Saint-Maurice, Val-de-Marne), France.

Charenton was known for its humanitarian treatment of patients, especially under its director Abbé de Coulmier in the early 19th century. The Marquis de Sade was held at the Charenton asylum until his death in 1814 at the age of 74.

The noted Belgian-born musicologist and composer Jérôme-Joseph de Momigny also died at the Charenton asylum, in 1842. The caricaturist André Gill died there in 1885. The mathematician André Bloch spent the last three decades of his life there.

Today, the name of the psychiatric hospital is Esquirol hospital, after Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol who directed the institution in the 19th century.