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Origin and history

The convent of the Clarisses of Roubaix was founded on the initiative of industrialist Henri Desclée (1802–73), pioneer of lighting gas, after a vow made in 1857 to thank for avoiding an accident in his factory. The project, financed mainly by his daughter and shareholders, was entrusted to architect Jean-Baptiste Béthune, the future designer of the Saint Joseph church. Built between 1874 and 1876, the Sainte-Claire school — intended for girls in the neighbourhood of the Epeule, then without a school establishment — opened its doors in October 1877 under the direction of three external sisters, while six cloistered clarisses settled in the convent as early as June 1876, coming from Tournai.

The community experienced tensions with anti-clerical laws: a first threat of expulsion in 1880 was avoided thanks to local protests, but the nuns were definitively expelled in 1903 by Waldeck-Rousseau laws. They took refuge in Belgium, while the state confiscated the premises. Repurchased in 1906 by industrialist Jules Masurel, the convent became a technical school, and the Clares could return in 1923. Their community believed up to 87 sisters in the interwar period, with a foundation at Tonkin in 1935, before a gradual decline leading to their final departure in May 2008.

The ensemble, registered with the Historical Monuments since 2010, was acquired by the city of Roubaix in 2009. After a call for projects in 2019, the Zerm collective and the Yes We Camp association developed Zero Seasons, a laboratory of applied ecology and heritage rehabilitation. The chapel now hosts conferences and workshops. The neo-Gothic brick architecture, with its cloister centered on a statue of St. Francis, its adjoining school and its varnished brick decorations, bears witness to Belgian influence and the Romanian industrial history.

The clarisses were a lasting sign of local life: their school, attended by up to 400 students in 1901, became a symbol of Christian unionism. Their heritage continues through the contemporary reinvention of the site, mixing religious memory, architectural heritage and ecological innovation.

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