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Origin and history

The monastery of the Recollets of Sarlat-la-Canéda was founded in 1613 under the impulse of Bishop Louis II of Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon, in a post-war context of Religion marked by the desire to restore Catholic influence in Périgord. The Franciscans, who had already settled since 1258 in a convent that had now disappeared, opposed this settlement, the Recollets being the result of a strict reform of their order. The inhabitants partially financed the construction by acquiring adjacent houses, allowing the beginning of the work of the church in 1618. His large work was completed in 1626, but his interior layout, including a plastered chestnut vault, was not completed until 1651.

The church, with a single nave facing south and two side chapels, has a rare baroque portal in Périgord, comparable to that of the town hall of Sarlat. Its sober decor, illuminated by four windows in the middle of the hanger, included a altarpiece that had disappeared in the 19th century. A stone engraved on the north wall commemorates its construction, and Fénelon's parents were buried there. During the Fronde (1653), the Recollets played a role in the Sarladais revolt against the troops of the Grand Condé, illustrating their local anchor.

Expelled in 1792 during the Revolution, the monks left room for a revolutionary club, then for a sale as a national good in 1796. Repurchased in 1804 by the White Penitents, the church was rearranged with a stand and enriched with a relic of the Crown thorns in 1808. The western chapels, acquired in 1816 by General Fournier-Sarlovèze, became a royalist place of worship. The union of the White and Blue Penitents in 1876 marked a new phase, with the addition of a memorial window (1890). Disused in 1914, the chapel served as a gymnasium and warehouse before becoming a sacred art museum in 1970. Classified as a Historical Monument in 1944, it now bears witness to the religious and social history of the Périgord.

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