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Origin and history

The chapel of the Lycée Ambrose-Paré de Laval is part of the former Ursulines convent, founded in the 17th century. In 1616, six Ursuline nuns from Bordeaux moved to Laval at the request of Archbishop François de Sourdis, with the mission of educating poor girls. They first occupied a house called the Armurerie, near the chapel Saint-Jacques, before settling definitively in 1620 on a land named the White Cross, where they built their monastery between 1620 and 1626 under the direction of architect Étienne Corbineau.

The convent, dedicated to teaching and monastic life, flourished until the French Revolution. In 1792, the remaining 20 nuns were expelled, and the site was transformed into a college, later becoming the Lycée Ambrose-Paré. The chapel, the only major vestige of the primitive convent, was inscribed in the Historical Monuments in 1926. Its architecture, marked by quadrangular towers and a cloister, reflects its religious and educational heritage.

The Ursulines of Laval played a key role in the founding of other monasteries in Brittany and the West, such as those of Château-Gontier, Thouars or Vitré. Their community, although reduced at the end of the 18th century, marked local history by its commitment to female education and its resistance to revolutionary unrest. Today, the chapel integrates the high school, symbol of the transition between religious heritage and secular education.

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