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Origin and history

The Ursulines de Vire convent, located in Calvados in Vire Normandie (former municipality of Vire), is a religious building built mainly during the second half of the seventeenth century, with significant additions in the nineteenth century. The Ursulines, established in the city from 1631, began construction from 1667. The chapel, potentially consecrated in 1697, bears witness to this initial period. The granite building houses remarkable furniture: a 15th-century Virgin with Child, 17th-century stalls and an 18th-century high altar.

In 1803 the convent was transformed into a Saint-Louis hospice, marking a change of vocation. An additional chapel was erected in 1821. The building has been partially protected since 1975: its facades, roofs, the twin staircases of the north wing and the chapel (with the choir of the nuns) are listed as historical monuments. Today owned by the commune, it illustrates the architectural and spiritual heritage of Normandy.

The site retains characteristic elements of the religious architecture of the Old Regime, such as the twin staircases, while incorporating later modifications. Its inscription in the title of historical monuments highlights its heritage value, linked to the history of the Ursulines and to the evolution of the uses of the convent buildings in France. Sources also mention its precise location: 4 rue Émile-Desvaux, in an area whose cartographic accuracy is considered to be satisfactory a priori.

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