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The ten-minute walk along rue des Remparts circles round the north side of the Seminaire to the Hotel-Dieu du Precieux Sang , the oldest hospital north of Mexico. The adjacent stone buildings are still occupied by the Augustinian order of nuns, who founded the hospital in 1639. Turning left up Cote du Palais and first left again leads to the Musee des Augustines de l'Hotel-Dieu de Quebec , 32 rue Charlevoix (Tues-Sat 9.30am-noon & 1.30-5pm, Sun 1.30-5pm; donation), where the artworks include some of Quebec's oldest paintings, among them the earliest-known portrayal of the city in the background of the portraits of the Duchess of Auguillon and her uncle Cardinal Richelieu, who together funded the hospital. Another notable painting is the Martyrdom of the Jesuits , a gruesome tableau showing the torture of Jesuit missionaries in southern Ontario by the Iroquois in 1649. (Only a disappointing black-and-white engraving is on display to the public.) Grateful patients also donated a fine collection of antique furniture, copperware and ornaments. Many of the items are from France, as the first settlers usually found themselves interned in the hospital to recover from the diseases rife on the ocean crossing. A collection of medical instruments from the seventeenth to mid-twentieth century is also on display. On request the Augustines offer free guided tours of the chapel and the seventeenth-century cellars where the nuns sheltered from the British in 1759.
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