Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Ursuline chapel of Angers, called the Ursula chapel, is one of the few 17th century religious buildings still standing in the city. Built between 1639 and 1645, it was consecrated in 1651 by Henri Arnauld. Its architecture is distinguished by a front door, masterpiece of Louis XIII sculpture, and a polychrome marble altarpiece comparable to the works of the Vallois school, notably those of Pierre Corbineau for the Ursulines of Château-Gontier. The chapel is part of a Conventual complex today partially disappeared, including private hotels of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

During the French Revolution, the convent was confiscated in 1792: the nuns were expelled, and the chapel turned into a military store. His furniture was partly sold to the church of La Daguenière, where it still remains. In 1797 the convent was fragmented and sold, with the exception of the chapel and an adjacent building. The street of the Ursules was pierced in 1799 on the site of the old cloister, definitely fragmenting the whole.

In the 19th century, the chapel regained its cult vocation: the first Mass officially authorized in Angers after the Revolution was celebrated there in 1800. The Ursulines reinvested in 1817, but the layization laws of 1910 forced them to close their boarding schools. The chapel, classified as a historic monument in 1935, was then used as a concert hall, a place of worship for the Collège Saint-Julien (1949), and was restored in the 1980s. Today owned by the city, it is renowned for its exceptional acoustics.

The architectural history of the convent reveals a progressive construction: the Ursulines, installed in Angers in 1618, successively acquired Renaissance hotels (like the Hotel de Goddes, dated 1575) and built their chapel between 1639 and 1645. The cloister and wings were completed at the end of the seventeenth century. After the Revolution, the site was dismantled by urban breakthroughs (rue des Ursules, rue du Mail), and several buildings disappeared in the 20th century, including the Helyand de la Barre hotel and the choir of nuns. Only the chapel, restored several times, still bears witness to this heritage.

The chapel houses remarkable elements such as the altarpiece of 1651, inspired by the achievements of Pierre Corbineau, and a sculpted door emblematic of the Louis XIII style. Its furniture, partly dispersed, includes rooms still visible in La Daguenière. The restorations of the 19th and 20th centuries (1894, 1980s) preserved its panel and stained glass windows, while adapting the building to contemporary uses, such as concerts. Its inscription in the historic monuments in 1935 underlined its heritage value, despite the destruction of much of the original convent.

External links