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Origin and history

The Dominican Convent of Guebwiller, located in the Upper Rhine, was founded in 1294 when the Dominicans acquired the city's customs house and outbuildings. Supported by Father Bertold of Falkenstein, the monks settled there on Palm Sunday 1294. Construction of the church nave began in 1306, followed by the choir, completed in 1322. The convent buildings, probably completed around 1339, were profoundly altered after the reform of the convent in 1461, although the church retained its original appearance.

Over the centuries, the convent suffered looting and fire, especially during the wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but the community survived until the French Revolution. After 1789, the places were diverted from their religious use: the church served as a stable in 1814, then as a deposit for a dyeing plant in 1826. In 1836, industrialist Jean-Jacques Bourcart offered the site to the city, which transformed the nave into a market hall and the choir into a cultural space. Ranked a historic monument in 1920, the church became a concert hall in 1962.

The convent experienced several restoration campaigns, notably between 1926 and 1972, revealing murals from the 15th and 18th centuries. In 1990, the Haut-Rhin department acquired the site for a symbolic euro and set up a cultural centre there. Since 2013, the Dominican convent has been a Cultural Centre of Encounter (CCR) focused on music, digital arts and botanical arts, while preserving its Gothic and Baroque architectural heritage.

The church, of sober style conforming to the Dominican ideal of poverty, is distinguished by its vaulted 14th century choir and nave decorated with 15th and 16th century murals, including a Saint Wolfgang dated 1498. The jube, decorated with symbolic sculptures (pelican, phoenix), illustrates the influence of Thomist theology. The convent buildings, organized around a square cloister, housed refectories, kitchen and capitular hall, partially transformed in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The excavations carried out in 1990 allowed to rediscover architectural and pictorial elements, while the successive restorations (including that of 1711) revealed a baroque decor superimposed on medieval structures. Today, the site combines heritage conservation and cultural innovation, welcoming concerts, exhibitions and artist residences in an exceptional historical setting.

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