Started in 1648 and completed nine years later, the Couvent de la Visitation functioned as a base for the religious order of the Visitation until it was abandoned in 1792, following the French Revolution. (...)
Started in 1648 and completed nine years later, the Couvent de la Visitation functioned as a base for the religious order of the Visitation until it was abandoned in 1792, following the French Revolution. At the beginning of the 19th century, the building complex assumed a second life as the first Lycée de France, an institution that still operates on the site, though in a separate building from the chapel. The couvent, or convent, designed by Claude Collignon, an architect from Lorraine, exhibits two particularly notable architectural elements: a mausoleum, built in Paris and moved to Moulins in 1653, and a series of religious paintings by the artist Remy Vuibert, a pupil of Simon Vouet, including a depiction of the life of the Virgin Mary on the ceiling. The mausoleum was commissioned in honor of Henry II, the last duke of Montmorency in Toulouse, and features portraits of the duke and his wife, who sponsored both the mausoleum and the chapel.
