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Origin and history

The Collège Eugène-Fromentin, founded in the 16th century as a municipal institution in La Rochelle, became a Jesuit establishment in 1629 after the siege of the city. The Jesuits added a Latin cross chapel, built between 1631 and 1638 under the direction of Brother Louis Mercier, and connected the college to the Jardin des Plantes by an underground passage. The chapel, the only vestige of this period, is distinguished by its vault in the middle of the cistern and its baroque pediment.

Originally set up in two houses on Bazoges Street (1504), the college moved in 1565 to the former Cordeliers convent, where a Renaissance door, known as 'Porte Jeanne d Whilst Albret', was erected in 1566. Under the leadership of Jeanne d'Albret and Henri de Navarre, the institution competes with the Royal College of Paris, attracting eminent teachers in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. After the Jesuits were expelled in 1762, the college passed under the control of the secular clergy until its closure in 1792.

Reopened in 1803 as an imperial high school, the building was rebuilt in 1838 by architect Antoine Brossard, retaining only the Jesuit chapel. In 1869, the 'Porte Jeanne d-Albret' was moved to the municipal library. In 1974, the establishment returned to college and took the name of the painter Eugène Fromentin, native of La Rochelle. The chapel, classified as a historical monument in 1969, now houses an early twentieth century décor and a baroque altarpiece.

The architecture of the college combines classical regularity and baroque elements: ordered two-storey facade, rhythmic spans, and rounded roofs typical of the seventeenth century. The right transept retains an altar and a retable of the era, while the nave, covered with a false wooden vault, bears witness to the adaptations of the nineteenth century. The site, which is owned by the municipality, remains a symbol of the educational and religious heritage of Rochelais.

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