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Origin and history

The chapel of the Ursulines of Quintin was built in 1707 on the land of Bel-Orient, at the initiative of the Duke of Lorges, to welcome a religious community dedicated to the education of girls. The first Ursulines temporarily settled in 1707 before work began in 1711. The choir of the nuns was solemnly laid in 1730, and the outside church was completed in 1736. The building is distinguished by its Juvena, a two-storey dormitory above the nave, illuminated by an oculus and windows.

During the Revolution, the chapel served as a place of residence for opponents, while the nuns were locked up in the castle. After the convent closed in 1904, the buildings became national property: the nave would successively house German tanks in 1940, then a gym. Ranked a historic monument in 1986 to avoid its collapse, the nave was scaffolded until 2022. Today, the convent buildings are home to social housing, and the chapel is attached to the Foundation of Writers' Houses.

The writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline, who sowed the wounded from the Great War to Quintin, married her in 1919. His work, The Church (1933), evokes this place, demonstrating his attachment to the region. The chapel thus illustrates both the religious, educational and literary history of Brittany, while bearing the stigma of the conflicts of the twentieth century.

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