Church of the Cordeliers, Avignon

The Church of the Cordeliers in Avignon traces its origins back to 1226 when the Cordeliers, a branch of the Franciscan order, established their convent outside the city’s medieval ramparts along the banks of the Sorgue River near the former Imbert entrance. Construction of the convent began in 1233, and the expansive church was completed by 1350. Over the centuries, it became a prestigious burial site for notable families, including the de Sade family, where Petrarch’s muse, Laure de Noves, is believed to have been interred in 1348.

The church's history took a violent turn on October 16, 1791, when Nicolas Lescuyer, a notary with revolutionary sympathies, was assassinated on the altar steps inside the nave, an act that ignited the gruesome 'massacres de la Glacière'. Following the French Revolution, the convent’s properties were seized and sold as national assets, leading to their gradual demolition. By 1806, the major structures of the convent were destroyed, leaving only the apse chapel and the severely eroded bell tower.

Today, these remnants are part of the Saint-Joseph High School (Lycée Saint-Joseph), built in the mid-19th century on the site. The original 14th-century church, typical of Avignon's ecclesiastical architecture, featured a single nave with lateral chapels nestled under the buttresses, which housed the tombs of Avignon's elite. The bell tower, sharing stylistic similarities with those of the Carmelites and Notre-Dame-la-Principale, and the seventeenth-century cloister-visited by Louis XIV in 1660-are among the few surviving elements that reflect the former grandeur of the Cordeliers’ presence in Avignon.