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Origin and history

The convent of the Cordeliers des Thons was founded in 1452 on the initiative of Guillaume de Saint-Loup and his wife Jeanne de Choiseul, with the support of Duke John II of Lorraine. Authorized by Pope Nicholas V in 1451, it was built by the minor brothers of Dole in Petit-Thon, near the border of the diocese of Besançon. The church, dedicated to Notre-Dame-des-Anges, was consecrated in 1483. The convent lived thanks to donations from local lords (such as Mathieu de Saint-Loup or Erard du Châtelet), rents, and farm incomes. His accounts, held until 1791, reveal a rigorous management allocated to the maintenance, the food of the religious, and their movements.

The French Revolution rang the bell of the convent: closed in 1790, it housed only four religious, including the superior Claude Laillet, who joined the Constitutional Church. The goods were sold in 1791 and turned into a farm. In 1812, the site was divided among three brothers, explaining the three distinct facades visible today. The church and part of the buildings were classified or listed as historical monuments between 1945 and 1980. Since 2006, the Saône Lorraine association has been restoring the site to establish a sacred art museum and cultural centre.

Today, the convent is distinguished by its exceptional state of conservation for a Franciscan ensemble in the northeast. The northern part, owned by the association, houses the former houses of the religious, while the central part hosts a restaurant of Vosgesian specialties, a museum (with a reconstituted cordon cell, an 18th-century prison, and exhibitions), and a cloister with Saint Francis fountain. The south side remains private. The restoration works, like those of the choir in 2019, aim to preserve this unique heritage, witness to five centuries of religious and local history.

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