White Lady Convent en Charente-Maritime

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Key figures

Origin and history

The convent of the White Ladies was founded in 1715 in La Rochelle by the sisters of Notre-Dame de la Charité du Refuge, nicknamed the White Ladies. Located in the Villeneuve, at the corner of Rue Saint-Louis and Rue des Trois-Marteaux, their mission was to welcome and accompany prostitutes wishing to repent. This convent reflected the social and religious concerns of the time, where the Church played a central role in the moral supervision of marginalized populations.

During the French Revolution, the buildings were requisitioned and transformed into a prison, then a begging depot, before becoming a hospital dedicated to maternity. This period illustrates the forced secularization of ecclesiastical goods and their reallocation to public uses, a common trend under the revolutionary regime. The convent was only reconstituted in 1810 in part of the former Recollet monastery, whose church is now the Protestant temple of La Rochelle.

In 1878, the sisters had the present chapel erected on the Maubec wharf, marking a new architectural and spiritual stage for the community. The convent was finally listed as historical monuments by decree of 5 August 1980, thus recognizing its heritage importance. Its history therefore combines religious, social and architectural dimensions, typical of the conventual establishments in France.

The architecture of the convent, although partially described, is part of the urban landscape of La Rochelle, a city marked by its Protestant and Catholic heritage. The successive transformations of the site — convent, prison, hospital, and then return to religious life — bear witness to the political and social upheavals that crossed France from the 18th to the 20th century.

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