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Origin and history

The Sainte-Claire convent of Sarlat-la-Canéda, located in the Dordogne at the corner of Jean-Jacques-Rousseau and La-Boétie streets, has its origins in the 17th century. The Clares, who came from Tulle in 1621, settled there under the impulse of Bishop Louis II of Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon. The building, composed of two square wings, preserves elements from the fourteenth century (south wing) and the seventeenth century (west wing, with its superimposed galleries). Intended for the education of the young girls of the nobility and the bourgeoisie, it completes local establishments run by other religious orders such as the nuns of Notre-Dame or the Mirepois.

In 1700 the Clarisses de Montignac joined the convent after the closure of their original establishment. The French Revolution put an end to his religious use: in 1793 he was converted to prison for those sentenced to deportation or imprisonment in Périgueux. In the 19th century, the Ladies of the Sacred Hearts founded a primary school with boarding school, taken over in 1947 by the White Ladies. The school closed in 1960, and despite attempts to restore in the 1970s, the west wing deteriorated.

In 1992, the convent was sold to the HLM office and restored to accommodate 26 housing units in 1994. Filed in the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments since 1944 for its facades, roofs and gallery of the cloister, it illustrates the evolution of the uses of a religious heritage, from education to social housing.

The oldest parts, dated from the 15th and 16th centuries, include the street façade and a tower of the corner. Most of the present set, including the garden buildings with the cloister and gallery on the first floor, however, dates back to the 17th century. These transformations reflect architectural adaptations related to the needs of the Clarisses and the urban constraints of Sarlat.

The convent also embodies the social changes in the region: first place of education reserved for the elite, it becomes a symbol of public housing policies in the twentieth century. Its history, in conjunction with that of the city — marked by the episcopate of the Fénelon family and revolutionary upheavals — makes it a privileged witness to the Sarlada heritage.

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