Together conventual of the Jacobins

The conventual Ensemble of the Jacobins of Toulouse is in downtown area, halfway between the Capitole and the the Garonne, and just opposite the college Pierre de Fermat. It consists of a church known as " church of Jacobins" , of a cloister and a convent, built by the order of the preaching friars. This order begging, also called Dominican Jacobins or , had been created in 1215 in Toulouse by Saint-Dominique in the Maison Seilhan (preserved since by the catholic faculty of Toulouse) in order to promote the preaching of the Gospel and to fight against the heresy Cathare. It is in these buildings that was established during several centuries the Université of Toulouse since its foundation in 1229.

It is about a monastic example of construction of XIIIe and XIVe centuries, entirely realized out of bricks, jewel of the Languedocien Gothic art. The church shelters since 1369 the body of Saint Thomas d' Aquin of which it took the term.

History

The convent was built in four times on grounds acquired in 1229 on the northern part of the old Roman rampart, with money given by a rich person Capitoul, Pons de Capdenier. The first countryside began in 1230. It consists in building a church of plan rectangular, with the brick walls, the flat bedside and covered with a frame. The nave of the Jacobin is already divided into two by a line of five pillar with base squares. Thus, the northern part was intended to the monks while the southern part was intended for laic attending the offices.

The second hard countryside of 1245 with 1252 and makes it possible to lengthen the church towards the east and a new chorus is arranged with funerary vaults. The third was major. It made it possible to equip the church with a Abside whose ceiling is made of a " palmier" , a pillar of 22 meters flanked of a starry vault with eleven cut branches of Bissectrice S. the posterity did not preserve the name of its architect.

The first Messe is celebrated by Bertrand de Montaigu, abbot of Moissac, in 1292. The bell-tower destroyed during the Révolution was of octagonal plan and rose with 15 meters height. The last construction campaign dates from the 14th century and makes it possible to remove contrast between the palm tree of the apse and the constructed nave. The double nave is rebuilt on the example of the apse thanks to the financings of the cardinal Guillaume-Pierre Godin.

Since 1369, one venerates there the relics of Saint Thomas d' Aquin allotted by the pope Urbain V. In 1385, the church is finally finished and devoted under the name of church Saint-Thomas d' Aquin. In 1791, when the Dominican ones had to leave, those were transported to Saint-Sernin, but they recently regained their place in 1974, with the favor of the seventh centenary of died of the saint.

The convent of the Jacobins, given up by the Dominican ones with the prohibition of their kind under the French revolution, is confiscated like good national and used as like barracks and like deposit.

A part is allotted to the town of Toulouse in 1810, but the other continues to lodge an army of horses, and more than 5.000 cubic meters of ground in order to raise the ground of it. The side chapels are slightly demolished to increase the places. The church becomes vast a stable while the Saint-Antonin vault becomes an infirmary veterinary surgeon. Finally the cloister is demolished with the three-quarter to improve the passage of the horses. In 1865, the monument was exchanged at the town of Toulouse against grounds where barracks were built and the army leaves the places. It is the Lycée Pierre de Fermat which recovers the buildings.

The whole of the Jacobins profited from a recent restoration, started in 1920, and only finished in 1972. Today, this brick church presents a very massive appearance, but its interior architecture remained light.

Description

The church of the Jacobins

The church was regarded as the most beautiful Dominican church of Christian Europe. It is 80 meters long on 20 meters of width creating an impressive interior volume. The piles 22 meters are high and are regarded as the highest high colonnades of the Gothic architecture. The " palmier" is a single masterpiece in the world rising with 28 meters height.

The outside of the building has a strict and very imposing appearance. The walls are high and right with powerful gothic arches in overhang and with sides armed with high buttresses with projections. Only a door and some waste-gas mains decorate the frontages of the building. In the west, only a Romance gate in semicircular arch of 1234 breaks the strict aspect of the frontage.

The interior is painted of polychrome decoration with that and there of the crosses occitanes. Stained glasses inspired of the Western pinks of the 14th century were carried out by max Ingrand in 1955.

The bell-tower

The bell-tower rests on the northern side of the church and measurement 45 meters in height. It was built between 1275 and 1298 in a way similar to that of the Basilique Saint-Sernin near. It is an octagonal bell-tower of four stages in withdrawal bored of covered geminated bays of arc in miter. Its original arrow was destroyed with the Revolution.

The cloister

The cloister is made of four galleries built between 1306 and 1309. The colonnades are in Marbre gray of Saint-Happy and the capitals are decorated vegetable sculptures. They support a roof in lean-to building resting on brick arcs, themselves resting on the chapitaux ones.

The chapter house

The chapter house dating among 1299 and 1301 is located in the Western gallery of the cloister. It is a vast room whose vault rests on two fine prismatic marble columns.

The refectory

The refectory is located in the prolongation of the Eastern gallery of the cloister. It is a vast room with arcs diaphragms carrying a panelled frame. It measures 17 m height and is one of the vastest monastic refectories of the medieval time. It accommodates temporary exhibitions today.

The Saint-Antonin vault

The vault Saint Antonin is located between the refectory and the chapter house. It was built and decorated between 1335 and 1341 with the expenses with Dominique Grima, preaching friar and bishop of Pamiers. It is intended to receive the tombs of the canons and the skin of his founder.

Its decoration is painted with softening and represents the second vision of the Apocalypse. Close to the blind windows with white flowers of lily on blue bottom, one finds angels with a series of instruments among which a Viole, a Cornemuse, a Harpe, a positive Orgue, a double bumblebee and a Psaltérion. The walls present paintings of the life of Saint-Antonin, owner of the cathedral of Pamiers.

See too

Internal bonds

Piano with the Jacobins

External bonds

Official site of the conventual whole of Toulouse
Photographs of the phototèque cloister of the Jacobins
of the church of the Jacobins on the wiki of Toulouse

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