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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Grand Séminaire of Nîmes was founded in 1822 by the bishop of the city in a building built in 1746 by Canon Antoine Chassating. Originally, this place housed a house of charity for girls, called "the Chassanites". After the Revolution, the building was thoroughly renovated to accommodate the diocesan seminary, with works led by architects Simon Durant (1822) and Gaston Bourdon (1844). The modifications include monumental stairs and a doric-column vestibule, while maintaining a sober 18th-century architecture.

In 1905, the law of separation of the churches and the state forced the seminary to leave. A new building was erected in 1923 Salomon Reinach Street, while the former site, which was listed as a historical monument in 2011, became the headquarters of the Gard department archives from 1911 to 2010. The protected elements include facades, roofs, the vaulted ground floor of the north wing, and the two large stairs, witness to its educational and religious past.

The building, owned by the department, illustrates the evolution of heritage uses: from the charitable work to the 18th century to clerical education to the 19th, then to archival conservation in the 20th century. Its quadrilateral, visible on the 1829 cadastre, reflects a utilitarian and harmonious architecture, marked by curved bays and regular spans. The physics room added in 1841, transformed into an oenological station in 1919, also highlights its adaptation to local scientific needs.

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