Chapel of the Grand Couvent

The chapel of the Grand-Couvent is a key monument in the Grand'Rue. Halfway between the cathedral group and the Porte d'Avignon, the building stands out along the main artery of the city since Antiquity, the cardo, which ran from north to south.

The Grand-Couvent, so named because of its size, is in fact the Convent of the Benedictine nuns. The nuns settled in the district as early as the 14th century, attached to the church of Saint Catherine, a former property of the Knights of the Temple. In the 17th century, the Counter-Reformation forced the construction of a new convent, which then formed the most extensive building complex in the old centre.

Seized during the Revolution, part of the buildings were then assigned to the Gendarmerie and thus preserved until the end of the 1940s. In the 1960s, the decision to preserve the most remarkable part of the complex resulted in the restoration of the chapel, which was then used for the library and the municipal archives. It is now a municipal venue for temporary exhibitions.