Cordeliers Convent, Historic Franciscan monastery in Latin Quarter, Paris, France.
The Cordeliers Convent is a former Franciscan monastery in the Latin Quarter, of which only the 13th-century refectory remains standing today. The buildings sit on rue de l'École de Médecine and now serve as part of the medical faculties of the university.
The monastery was founded in the 13th century as a home for Franciscan friars. During the French Revolution it became a meeting place for a political club and permanently lost its religious purpose.
The convent takes its name from the Franciscan friars who founded it, recognizable by the knotted cords (cordelles) they wore as belts. Visitors can still see traces of this religious community in the architecture of the surviving refectory.
The site functions today as a university campus with limited public access. Visitors should check in advance when and how the remaining spaces can be viewed.
The convent long housed an important anatomical museum that preserved thousands of human specimens for medical teaching purposes. This unusual blend of spiritual space and medical science shaped the site's character until recent decades.
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