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Origin and history

The convent of the Augustinians of Domme, located on Rue de la Chapelle in the Dordogne department, originates in the early 14th century under the impulse of King Philip the Bel. Founded by Cardinal Gilles of Rome (or Aegidius Romanus), preceptor of the king and general of the order of St Augustine, he received royal protection as early as 1292. This convent was part of the policy of monastic settlement supported by the crown, aimed at strengthening religious and political influence in southwestern France.

In the 15th century, the convent had already been established, although its discipline had eased over the decades. In 1411, a survey conducted by two religious sent from Toulouse attempted to reform abuses, without lasting success: in the 16th century, the community had only one prior, two monks and two servants. The poverty of the convent was officially attested during an inquiry in Sarlat in 1533, organised to prove its tax exemption as a royal foundation.

The Wars of Religion marked a dramatic turning point for the abbey. In 1588, Protestant leader Geoffroy de Vivans took Domme by climb and destroyed part of the convent, including his church, leaving only the bell tower standing. The Augustins, expelled, returned only in 1617, after the return of the city to the royalists in 1592. They then restored the place to establish a school teaching the basics of Latin, writing and numeracy, while temporarily staying in a nearby house.

The French Revolution sealed the fate of the convent. In 1790, the Augustinians abandoned it in accordance with decrees abolishing religious orders. The buildings were sold as national property in 1791 to a local bourgeois, Bar, and transformed into private property. The chapel, the only remaining part, was listed as historical monuments in 1971. Its architecture, combining Gothic elements (sculpted cul-de-lampe, adorned accolade) and traces of reconstructions, bears witness to this turbulent history.

The site later passed into the hands of Count Colonna Walewski, descendant of Napoleon I, before becoming a civil heritage. Today, the chapel and remains of the convent recall both the influence of the Augustinians in Périgord and the political and religious upheavals that marked the region from the Middle Ages to the Revolution.

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