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.

The convent was seized during the Revolution and became national property. Part of the buildings were then allocated 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 led to the restoration of the chapel, which was then allocated to the library and municipal archives. It is now a municipal venue dedicated to temporary exhibitions.