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Origin and history

The convent of the Clarisses Urbanistes de Fougères, founded in 1633, was built in 1680 to welcome a religious community from the monastery of Patience de Laval. Located between the city centre and the cemetery, it gives its name to the street of the Urbanists. Its architecture, typical of the seventeenth century Breton, mixes granite and shale, with a partially destroyed cloister, a chapel transformed into a stable during the Revolution, and buildings organized around a rectangular courtyard. The site, marked by a fire in 1794, served as a military prison and barracks, altering two sides of the cloister.

The nun Jeanne Le Royer (1732–98), known for her prophecies, is one of the figures associated with the convent. Ranked a historic monument on 15 July 1965, the building is today a major cultural pole of Fougères Agglomeration: it hosts the intercommunal conservatory of music René Guizien, a school of plastic arts, and since 2012, the Albert Bourgeois gallery. A contemporary extension, including a 120-seat auditorium and dance halls, is planned for December 2025.

Architecturally, the convent is distinguished by its slate roofs, its lucarns with alternately triangular and circular pediments, and a chapel with a salient transept. The western facade, pierced by a circular bay, and the broken northwest pavilion illustrate the know-how of the time. The stairs, one up-to-date looking at the cloister, the other turning without opening, reflect a monastic organization adapted to military constraints during its revolutionary reuse.

The historical sources, including the works of Canon Guillotin de Corson (1886) or of Achilles Léon (1926), document his religious and social role. After centuries of transformation, the convent embodies both the Breton Franciscan heritage and a successful conversion into public cultural equipment, managed by the territorial community.

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