Patrimony
The Minimes convent (couvent des Minimes) in the plain of Saint-Martin-d'Hères.
The Cloister
Burial place of the knight Bayard, the Minimes convent was founded at the end of the XVth Century. Nowadays, it belongs to the city of Saint-Martin-d'Hères.
Founded in 1494 by François de Paule and Laurent Alleman, Bishop of Grenoble and uncle of the knight Bayard, the Minimes convent was built with poor materials (riverbed shingle) in a very plain type of architecture.
It was actually among one of the first convents founded in France along with those of Plessis, Amboise, Fréjus and Toulouse. With its thirteen monks, it became the Order's provincial headquarter. In the XVIth Century, the convent also served as a burial place for the Grenoble aristocracy. The knight Bayard was buried there in 1524. In the XXth Century, the Gamel family turned it into a candy and Ratafia liqueur factory.
The Order of the Minimes
The Order of the Minimes is a mendicant order founded in 1435 by Saint François de Paule. At the beginning of the XVIIIth Century, the Order reached its peak: it had over four hundred monasteries. Saint François de Paule himself founded several of them in France as he left his native land of Calabria to go to Touraine (Tour region) in 1483. Seriously ill, King Louis XI called Saint François de Paule to his bedside as he wished to benefit from the advice of a "healer", a man of God. Following the death of the King, Saint François de Paule lived in the castle of Plessis-les-Tours for 24 years by the side of King Charles VIII and King Louis XII.
Architectural Interest
The cloister at one time enclosed a yard paved with cobbles made of Sassenage stones. The galeries' floors were once paved with small brown tiles ("carrillotes"). The columns have a round shaft and are made of freestones supporting arches and brickwork. The sacristy, an ogival-shaped room, is still intact. Its floor is paved with small clay tiles. This room also features a period groined vault. From the sacristy, one can access the church tower, the only remains of the church. The tower is square-shaped. Its spire must have been octagonal-shaped and made of tuff. Over the centuries, the convent underwent several fires. The church and three of the aisles of the building have now disappeared.
The Sacristy
Mores Pictures: The chapel, The couvent, The cloister 1, The cloister 2
