Couvent des Minimes

English translation

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History

In 1617, Hippolyte Bourchard and François d'Esparbès de Lussan founded the convent of the Minims of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption to serve as a burial place for their families and as an educational establishment for the marquisate. The first stone of the chapel was laid on 15 August 1617. The new religious community moved in in 1626. They also received the hospital, previously run by the Cordeliers, and ceded it in 1742 to the religious women of Sainte-Marthe. Since the Revolution, the convent was put to various uses (private school, gendarmerie, town hall then hospice in 1960). The buildings form a two-storey quadrilateral on a base, surrounding a cloister courtyard, leaning against the chapel which forms the west wing. The north and east elevations, as well as the whole of the convent, were disturbed by successive modifications. A bretèche, 18th-century openings and a 17th-century portal were preserved on the east and south façades. On the interior, the ground floor consists of vaulted rooms. The cloister is punctuated by arcading. The chapel is adorned with a retable in white stone and rib vaults. It was supported by lateral chapels opening to the west.