Couvent des Récollets de Paris

The couvent des Récollets de Paris is a former Franciscan monastery in Paris. It is a listed historical monument since 1974.[1]

View of the former monastery

History

Henry IV of France granted the Récollets permission to build a monastery on land two paces from saint-Laurent church which had been given them by his tapestry maker Jacques Cottard. They initially built a small church and the foundation stone of the monastery and a larger church was laid by Marie de Medici on 30 August 1614.

It closed in 1790 and was turned into a military hospital for 'incurables' in 1802. In 1861 the incurable cases were moved to the hospice des Incurables d'Ivry and it became the Saint-Martin military hospital, before being renamed after the military doctor Jean Antoine Villemin (1827-1892) in 1913. Near gare du Nord and gare de l'Est, it was heavily used during both world wars and was still in use during the Algerian War.

It finally closed as a hospital in 1968 and was long threatened with demolition before being made a historic monument in 1974. It now houses Lerichemont, part of RIVP.

Sources (in French)

1. Mérimée PA00086485, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French) Ancien couvent des Récollets ou ancien hôpital Villemin

• http://www.international-recollets-paris.org/
• Jacques Hillairet, Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris, Paris, Les Éditions de Minuit, 1972, 1985, 1991, 1997 , etc. (1re éd. 1960), 1 476 p., 2 vol. [détail des éditions] (ISBN 2-7073-1054-9, OCLC 466966117, présentation en ligne [archive])
• Jules de Gaulle, Nouvelle histoire de Paris et de ses environs, Paris, P. M. Pourrat frères, 1839-1841, 630 p.