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Origin and history

The convent of the Recollets was founded between 1611 and 1613 by the minor brothers recollets on a peninsula (then island) between the ports of Ciboure and Saint-Jean-de-Luz, at the invitation of the bishop of Bayonne. Their mission was to ease the tensions between the two rival parishes regarding port rights. Placed under the name of Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix, this foundation becomes a place of residence for bishops on a pastoral visit. The cloister, completed in 1643 with its eighteen arcades, was enlarged in the 18th century. The site hosts historical figures such as Mazarin, Louis XIV and Marie-Thérèse of Austria in 1660, the eve of their marriage in Saint-Jean-de-Luz.

Racked in 1791 during the Revolution, the convent lost its library of 1,200 books and its monks were dispersed. Turned into a barracks, prison, then a forage depot, part of its furniture (tabernacle, pulpit, statue of Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix) is transferred to the church of Saint Vincent de Ciboure. The south wing was demolished in 1820, and the premises, sold to the state in 1821, successively housed housing, customs, and a salt plant in the 20th century. In the late 1900s, the site was bought by the municipality in 2008 for €1,129 million.

Ranked as a historical monument in 2013, the convent is rehabilitated as a cultural centre. The old chapel becomes an auditorium, while the west wing is to host a Centre for the Discovery of Architecture and Heritage (CIAP), within the framework of the label City and Country of Art and History. The cloister retained a tank well offered by Mazarin in 1662, protected as early as 1925, and fragments of exceptional painted decorations were rediscovered in the old library.

The architecture combines a rectangular chapel, a house of bishops (1675) opening on the port of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, and an arcade cloister. The central well, surmounted by a four-column baldaquin, was once decorated with niches symbolizing marine and river attributes. Only three sides of the cloister remain today, the fourth having been replaced by a modern house body.

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