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Origin and history

The Jacobin Convent of Reims, founded in the 13th century, was a Dominican settlement located in the city of Reims. The brothers were invited by Bishop Alberic of Humbert in 1220, but did not settle permanently until 1245, after a gift from the monks of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, their neighbours. The medieval church had three naves and eighteen bow-buttons, with a facade decorated with two hanging turrets surrounding a double bay. The bell tower, square and surmounted by a four-belled stone arrow, was consecrated in 1280 by Pierre Barbet.

In 1441 Brother Nicolas Pinguis, appointed vicar of the Inquisition, was forced to silence by the canons and the archbishop, illustrating the religious tensions of the time. The convent also served as a meeting place for the inhabitants, particularly during the election of the deputies of the General States in 1789 and for the clubs of the friends of the Constitution. The convent library, with 1,764 books, was seized in 1791 and transferred to the municipal library.

The ruins of the convent, rediscovered in 1884 after a fire in a dye factory on the site, were preserved and integrated in the Jacobin Square in 1984. This site, classified as a historic monument since 1981, now links Hincmar Street to the Rue des Jacobins, offering a public space full of history.

The Jacobin convent thus embodies centuries of religious, political and urban history in Reims, from its medieval role to its revolutionary heritage and its contemporary rehabilitation.

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