A little history of Cordeliers convent in Châteauroux
And also
The tops
With its nice little gardens, the old monastery houses nowadays modern art exhibitions.
This building was raised in the beginning of the 13th century (1212), founded by Guillaume de Chauvigny, lord of Châteauroux. It was the first monastery of Saint Francis of Assisi's order created in France!
They built the church and its buildings outside the city walls: so, they had to fortify the monastery! In 1216, the church was consecrated.
Meanwhile, Guillaume gave money for the building work and his abbey was quickly extended. Anthony of Padua came to Châteauroux in 1125, in order to visit the monastery.
But during wars of religion, our monastery was destroyed. And friars didn't have enough money for the reconstruction! In the middle of the 17th century, they were forced to rent their plot of land.
And the French revolution came... The last monks fled away. Then, they transformed the abbey into barracks. Restoration work began in 1975.