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Origin and history

The Jesuit College of Toulouse was founded in 1567 in the Bernuy Hotel, a Renaissance building built between 1503 and 1536 for merchant Jean de Bernuy. Three capitouls, Pierre Delpech, Pierre de Madron and Jean de Gamoy, bought the hotel in 1566 to install the Jesuits, expelled from Pamiers by the Protestants in 1563. The college opened its doors on June 20, 1567, after exchanges of buildings with the municipality, including the former colleges of Verdales and Montlezun.

The Jesuits undertook expansion work, including the construction of a chapel completed in 1575 and consecrated by the bishop of Albi, Philip of Rodolphe. In 1605, a large baroque gate, decorated with the coats of arms of the capituls and the king, was erected Rue des Jacobins (present-day Joseph-Lakanal Street). In 1648 a gallery was added to house the library, and in 1683 a new theology class and a portal for the chapel were built. The college, with up to 1,200 students, offered free literary education and a boarding school.

The expulsion of the Jesuits in 1762 transformed the establishment into a royal college in 1763, under the impulse of Archbishop Loménie of Brienne. The latter modernized teaching by integrating science and created the municipal library from Jesuit funds. The Hemicycle Court, a neoclassical style, was also built during this period. The 17th century portal, the only item listed as a Historic Monument in 2007, today bears witness to this prestigious past.

The current buildings, organized around several courtyards, bear mainly the marks of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, although Renaissance remains remain. The college, which was associated with the University of Toulouse in 1764, became a symbol of Catholic educational reform and resistance to the religious tensions of the time, especially between Catholics and Protestants.

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