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Origin and history

The Cordeliers d'Evreux convent is a Franciscan convent founded in the 1st quarter of the 14th century, under the impulse of Queen Jeanne d'Evreux, who bequeathed him liberalities by will. This monument, located in the current Dr. Guindey Street in Evreux (Eure), embodies Norman medieval religious architecture, marked by the flamboyant Gothic style. It was rebuilt after a fire in the early 14th century, then deeply altered during the French Revolution (1789-1799), where it was sold as a national good and partially dismantled.

This convent belonged to the Congregation of the Cordeliers, Franciscans following a rule revised in the 14th century by Saint Bonaventure, less austere than that of the Capuchins. He played a major social role in welcoming the needy and operating as a charitable hospital, before declining at the end of the Old Regime. Its history is also linked to the disorders of the fourteenth century, marked by the Hundred Years' War and the epidemics of black plague, as evidenced by the mention of a Psalter of Ingebrugen copied by his monks.

Architecturally, the convent is one of the last medieval Franciscan vestiges of Normandy. Its facades, roofs and frames of east and south buildings, as well as tumular slabs, have been protected since 1994 as a Historic Monument. The site, divided and mutilated in the 19th century, nevertheless retains key elements of its past, including its Gothic porch. Today, it illustrates both the Norman religious heritage and the urban changes of Evreux.

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