Couvent des Récollets de Paris

The couvent des Récollets de Paris is a former Franciscan monastery in Paris. It is a listed historical monument since 1974.[1]

View of the former monastery

History

Henry IV of France granted the Récollets permission to build a monastery on land two paces from saint-Laurent church which had been given them by his tapestry maker Jacques Cottard. They initially built a small church and the foundation stone of the monastery and a larger church was laid by Marie de Medici on 30 August 1614.

It closed in 1790 and was turned into a military hospital for 'incurables' in 1802. In 1861 the incurable cases were moved to the hospice des Incurables d'Ivry and it became the Saint-Martin military hospital, before being renamed after the military doctor Jean Antoine Villemin (1827-1892) in 1913. Near gare du Nord and gare de l'Est, it was heavily used during both world wars and was still in use during the Algerian War.

It finally closed as a hospital in 1968 and was long threatened with demolition before being made a historic monument in 1974. It now houses Lerichemont, part of RIVP.

Sources (in French)
  1. Base Mérimée: PA00086485, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French) Ancien couvent des Récollets ou ancien hôpital Villemin
  • http://www.international-recollets-paris.org/
  • Jacques Hillairet, Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris, Paris, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1972, 1985, 1991, 1997 , etc. (1re éd. 1960), 1 476 p., 2 vol. [détail des éditions] (ISBN 2-7073-1054-9, OCLC 466966117, présentation en ligne [archive])
  • Jules de Gaulle, Nouvelle histoire de Paris et de ses environs, Paris, P. M. Pourrat frères, 1839-1841, 630 p.

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