Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The former convent of the Minimes of Beauregard-l-Vévêque, also called the Mirabeau convent, was founded in the 16th century by Guillaume Duprat, bishop of Clermont. The latter, inspired by his encounter with the Minimes at the Council of Trent (1545-1547), decided to establish the order in Auvergne. Construction began around 1535, but the chapel was still under construction when Duprat died in 1560. The date of 1572, engraved in the choir, probably marks the completion of the church. The convent, organized around a cloister, included a unique nave with doghead crosses and a jube dismantled in the 16th century.

The site was expanded in the 17th century and partially destroyed after the Revolution, when it was sold as a national property and transformed into a farm under the name Mirabeau. A fire in 1920 ravaged the northern part, built in the 18th century. Today, only the Renaissance chapel, which was listed as a Historic Monument in 1908, and modified convent buildings remain. The ensemble bears witness to the religious architecture of the Counter-Reform and episcopal patronage in Auvergne.

Guillaume Duprat, the central figure of the project, bequeathed his property to the convents he had founded. His 1560 will reveals the involvement of relatives, such as his cousin Antoine Duprat or Father Simon Guichard, visitor of the Minimes. These clerical actors supervised the completion of posthumous work. The convent, originally dedicated to the Virgin, became a place of monastic life before its secularization. Its history reflects religious and political upheavals from the Renaissance to the Revolution.

The chapel, the only complete vestige of the Renaissance in Auvergne, is distinguished by its five-span nave and adorned choir. The dead jube of 1582 was transferred to Saintonge. The adjacent buildings, rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries, housed the monk cells and community spaces. The entrance yard in the north retains traces of the original layout, although modified by a later passage.

Ranked among the Historical Monuments in 1908, the site attracts attention for its mix of styles (Renaissance, classical) and its role in the history of Minimes in France. Sources, such as Annie Regond (2003), highlight its heritage importance. Despite the destruction, there remains a major testimony of sacred art auvergnat and the influence of the bishops of Clermont under the Old Regime.

External links