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Origin and history

The Sainte-Marie d'Annonay convent, built in the 2nd quarter of the 17th century, was founded in 1630 by nuns from Notre-Dame de Bordeaux who came to educate disadvantaged young girls. They settled there in 1633, accompanied by an adjoining chapel. The settlement was first extended in 1686 with the construction of the south wing and the beautification of the chapel. In 1748, the central buildings were rebuilt, partially modifying the cloister. The French Revolution marked a turning point: the convent, sold as a national good, was abandoned by the nuns because of its state of degradation, aggravated by prisoners who had used its woodwork to heat up.

In the 19th century, Madame de l'Hermuzière, the superior of a community of diursulines, obtained a lease to renovate the convent and educate eighty young girls there. In 1865, a new wing was added near the chapel. However, anticlerical laws of the early 20th century led to the expulsion of Ursulines, despite their resistance to protect elderly and sick nuns. The convent then became a refuge for 2,500 Alsatian and Meusian refugees during the First World War, before building a museum, a public school and municipal housing.

The chapel, disused in 1904, was transformed into a meeting room and then into a municipal depot. Ranked a historic monument in 1981, it was restored in the 1990s: its ceiling and woodwork were preserved, and a altarpiece was installed there. Today, it serves as a choreographic studio, exhibition hall and concerts. Conventual housing, rebuilt between the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, retains only the original exterior walls.

The architecture of the convent, organized around a central building and two wings with round towers, dominates the Deûme valley. Its cloister, once opened on convent gardens (now gone) and the city, reflects an unusual spatial conception. The north wing still houses the old chapel, remarkable by its ceiling. Located in the historic centre of Annonay, on Rue Sainte-Marie, the building is now owned by the city.

The convent illustrates the social and religious changes of the region: first a place of education and monastic life, it became a symbol of tensions between the state and the Church under the Third Republic, before reinventing itself into a cultural and residential space. Its history also reflects the upheavals associated with wars (Revolution 1914-1918) and modern heritage policies.

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