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Origin and history

The Saint Joseph House is a former Benedictine convent founded in 1614 in Châlons-en-Champagne by the city council to accommodate the nuns of the Abbey of Avenay, destroyed by a fire in 1567. These ladies, led by the abbesse Françoise de Beauvilliers de Saint-Aignan, took refuge there. During the Thirty Years War (1636), they withdrew to their priory Saint Joseph to escape the Spanish troops of John de Werth. The buildings, originally built at the beginning of the seventeenth century, were gradually rebuilt from the third quarter of this century.

The cloister was completely rebuilt in 1682, while the wooden staircase, made in 1669 by the carpenter Pierre Collart, bears witness to local craftsmanship. The chapel, built in 1706, replaces an earlier building. A fire ravaged part of the convent in 1769, resulting in partial reconstruction in wooden strips. In 1788, the convent was abolished by the Council of State: the statues of the facade were removed, including a Virgin with the Child replaced in 1897 by a statue of Saint Joseph, offered by the workshop C. Brebon.

From 1788 to 1846, the premises housed the Saint-Maur Hospice, before being bought by Abbé Loisson de Guinaumont and his sister, who founded an orphanage and a retirement home. Between 1827 and 1829 work expanded the cloister and raised wings. In the 20th century, the site hosts a housekeeping and then professional school, as well as a retirement home for elderly nuns. Since 1995, Saint Joseph House has been listed as a historic monument. Today, some of the buildings are being rehabilitated to become the diocesan house of Châlons.

The architecture of the site combines Savonnières stone for the chapel, chalk tiles for secondary walls, and cracked wooden panels for facades on street. The broken long-paned roof and the vaulted galleries of the cloister illustrate the styles of the 17th and 18th centuries. The structural staircase, turning back and forth without day, remains a remarkable example of the local craftsmanship of the period.

The chapel, with an elongated plan, is distinguished by its limestone façade and its open gable. Protected elements since 1995 include facades, roofs, vaulted galleries and wooden staircases. The site, owned by an association, retains a social and religious vocation, between historical memory and adaptation to contemporary needs.

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