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 Around
1280, after numerous disputes with the Benedictines, the Franciscans founded a convent on
the edges of the town in the parish of St-Nizier-sous-Charlieu. Destroyed in the 1360s,
the cordeliers of the convent were reconstructed from the end of the 14th
century to the beginning of the 15th. Occupied by the "Frères Mineurs
Conventuels", in a very bad state from the moment of the revolution, it was closed in
1792 and the last three religious inhabitants were chased out. The buildings sold as
"national goods" were destroyed or transformed into barns, sheds and dwellings.
The only things to have survived today are the cloisters, the church and the religious
"library".The Cloister was built thanks to the Châteaumorand family between
1370 and 1410. Sold in June 1910 to a Parisian antique dealer, it was partially dismantled
to decorate the tennis court of an American millionaire but was urgently classed as an
Historic Monument the following October. The gothic styled galleries were formed from trefoil arches. The decoration is very well kept. with garlands of foliage from the top of the galleries and varieties of figurative framework at the north side. The adjoining church, built at the end of the 14th century was only classed as an Historical Monument in 1952 it is remarkable for its wooden framework, mostly dating from the end of the 17th century and its murals on the south wall from the 15th century.
Opposite the entrance to the cloisters, a building from the 16th an 17th centuries would have been the ancient library of the convent. |
We can also see, to the left of the
chancel, beautiful recumbent statues of the lords of Châteaumorand, benefactors of the
Franciscans (beginning of the 15th century).