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Origin and history

The church of Notre-Dame-des-Cordeliers de Gourdon, founded in the 13th century by Gisbert II de Thémines and his wife Hélène de Gourdon-Salviac, is part of the history of Franciscans (cordeliers) in Quercy. The convent, established outside the ramparts around 1250, was led in 1266 by Blessed Christophe de Ramandiola, companion of St Francis of Assisi. The church, completed in 1287 (dated engraved on a keystone), became a place of civic assembly as early as 1288, during a tax crisis between bourgeois and artisans. His spiritual climax in the 14th century is illustrated by two of his religious names: Guillaume Farinier (1356) and Fontanier de Vassal (1361).

The Hundred Years' War began its decline, aggravated by the wars of Religion: in 1562, Protestants destroyed the convent buildings and massacred monks. Restored in the seventeenth century, the premises were confiscated from the Revolution (goods sold in 1792, archives burned in 1793). The church, transformed into barracks, forage store and then powder shop, became parishioner under the First Empire. In the 19th century, it houses a school of girls run by the Clares (1817-1902), then a small seminary (from 1907). Disused since the 1960s, it now serves as an exhibition hall.

The architecture, typical of the southern Gothic, includes a unique nave with four dogive vaulted spans, a seven-sided apse, and later added lateral chapels. Among the remarkable elements are a 14th century monolithic baptismal tank (sculpted by one Christ and the twelve apostles) and historic stained glass windows (1874) signed by Goussard and Anglade, representing the apostles, Saint Germaine of Pibrac and Saint Philomena. The current bell tower, built in 1895, replaces a medieval bell-wall deemed ineffective by parishioners.

Ranked a Historical Monument in 1929, the church preserves traces of its conventual past: remains of the Gothic cloister in the courtyard of the current college, and a funerary liter (17th century) with arms of the family of Lauzières-Thémines, benefactor of the place. Its history reflects the religious, political and social upheavals of Quercy, from medieval times to modern secularization.

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