The local hospital in the French town of Baugé, built in 1675, was a hard-wrought refuge for the ailing poor. But cast aside any grim visions of desperate hovels and wizened mountebanks: despite all the suffering it saw, the building was strikingly opulent, with a baroque apothecary hidden away at its heart. Still perfectly preserved with all its original pillboxes, jars and intricate herb cases, the chamber is a moment in medical history, bottled| The World Of Interiors
Steeped in the Moderne style, the interwar designer Armand-Albert Rateau also nodded to ancient ecclesiastical architecture to add some god-given glamour to his opulent schemes. Take these three 1920s bathrooms, conceived for a French couturière, a Spanish duchess and an American socialite, which borrow from Romanesque churches, Byzantine basilicas and beyond| The World Of Interiors