La chapelle Sainte-Marie, Chapel building in Nevers, France

La Chapelle Sainte-Marie stands at the start of Rue Saint-Martin in Nevers, the only remaining building of the former Visitation monastery. Its facade, in a baroque style rare in the Nivernais, rises in tiers to an arched pediment with a sculpted figure, flanked by two slender columns framing a red double door reached by a curved stone stair with a balustrade. Three tall arched windows sit above the door, and a small domed bell turret with a cross stands on the roof ridge.

Louise-Marie de Gonzague, who later became Queen of Poland, laid the first stone of this chapel in June 1639. The building emerged from the plans of a Visitation convent that had been built between the 1620s and 1630s.

The Visitandines arrived in Nevers in 1620, the seventh foundation of the order begun at Annecy in 1610 by François de Sales and Jeanne de Chantal. The convent's only surviving work of art is a poem: Jean-Baptiste Gresset's Ver-Vert of 1734, about a parrot brought to the Nevers sisters. The nuns now live at 49 route des Saulaies.

The chapel sits at the beginning of Saint-Martin Street in central Nevers and is easily accessible on foot. Visitors can explore the interior and examine the architectural details at their own pace.

The chapel is the sole surviving building from a former Visitation convent and displays a rare baroque style for this part of France. The merging of three separate houses into a single sacred space represents an unusual architectural solution.