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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Recollet cloister is a former medieval convent located in the Old Town of Metz, Moselle. Originally founded by monks of the Order of Cordeliers in 1230 on the hill Sainte-Croix, it was occupied from 1602 by Recollets until the French Revolution. The current buildings, built in the 13th and 14th centuries, preserve emblematic elements such as the capitular hall, the central garden with its well, and the cloister with un arched Gothic galleries, characteristic of Messina civil architecture.

In 1330-1340, a mural depicting the Annunciation was discovered in a niche of the Western Wall, later enlarged to form the fire of Jean Braidy, who died in 1373. The convent underwent reshuffles in the 17th century with reused materials, and its doorway on the rue des Murs, preserved after the works of the 1960s, illustrates the adoption of a classical style. After the Revolution, the Rhine Army stayed there in 1791, and the church and the fourth gallery were destroyed in 1804.

In the 19th century, the premises housed an orphanage. Since 1972, the convent has hosted the European Institute of Ecology, founded by Jean-Marie Pelt, Deputy Mayor of Metz, as well as the municipal archives since 2002. The facades, roofs and galleries of the cloister have been classified as historic monuments since March 23, 1972, highlighting their heritage value.

The site also features funerary remains, such as a lier and tombstones embedded in the walls, as well as columns with floral decorations, probably from the old chapel, scattered in the gardens. These elements bear witness to its rich religious and architectural past.

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