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Origin and history

The former small seminary of the Esquile in Toulouse, now known for its Carmelite chapel, is a Catholic religious building built in the seventeenth century and embellished in the eighteenth. Located on the Rue du Périgord, it is the only vestige of the Carmelite convent reformed by Thérèse d The chapel, classified as a historical monument in 1909, houses a remarkable collection of murals and paintings, including those of Jean-Pierre Rivalz and Jean-Baptiste Despax, illustrating biblical scenes and the life of the holy Carmelites.

The Carmelites settled in Toulouse in 1616, coming from Bordeaux, under the direction of Mother Elizabeth of the Angels, at the request of Mary of Medici. The first stone of the chapel was laid in 1622 by Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, although the promise of royal financing (25 000 pounds) was not kept. The work, funded by Guillaume de Reséguier, was completed in 1643. The architect Didier Sansonnet designed a unique nave with four spans and a three-sided apse, later decorated by Rivalz and his son Antoine, then by Despax between 1737 and 1752.

The interior decoration, commissioned by the nuns, combines painted architecture and narrative paintings. Despax's works, carried out between 1747 and 1751, celebrate the Carmelite order, the Virgin, and Saint Teresa of Ávila, with scenes such as Elijah bringing down the fire from heaven or the Apotheosis of Saint Thérèse. After the Revolution, the chapel became the chapel of the major seminary (1807–1905), and then housed a moulding museum before being opened to the public in 1975. Successive restorations (1817, 1837, 1891) preserved his artistic heritage.

The site of the Esquile, wider than the chapel, includes buildings from the sixteenth, seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The so-called Esquile Gate, by Nicolas Bachelier (1556), and medieval traces in the courtyard testify to his complex history. Occupied by the army during the First World War, the site now houses cultural institutions such as the cinema library. The chapel, owned by the commune, has been protected as historical monuments since 1910 (door) and 1992 (buildings).

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