Couvent des Jacobins, Gothic convent in central Rennes, France.

The Couvent des Jacobins is a former Dominican convent at the north-west corner of Place Sainte-Anne in Rennes, comprising a church, a cloister and convent buildings. Its light stone walls and dark slate roofs enclose a two-storey wing with an arcade of round arches on square piers, and a taller church section with two slender spires and a rose window. Since 2018 it has housed the Rennes Métropole conference centre.

The Dominican order settled here in the 14th century: a Rennes burgher, Pierre Rouxel, made a donation in 1367, and Duke John IV laid the first stone. Between the 15th and 18th centuries it was a major burial place, with around a thousand graves found by INRAP archaeologists, including lead sarcophagi of Rennes nobles. The engagement of Anne of Brittany and Charles VIII was celebrated here in 1491. The army turned it into a barracks in 1793.

The convent takes its other name, Bonne-Nouvelle, from a 14th-century panel painting of the Virgin kept here, which made the site a place of pilgrimage and preaching; the painting is now in the neighbouring basilica Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Nouvelle. In 1491 the betrothal of Anne of Brittany and Charles VIII was celebrated here. The building housed the Rennes contemporary art biennial in 2008 and 2010.

The site is easily accessible near the Sainte-Anne metro station in central Rennes and serves as an active convention venue. Visitors should note that some areas may have limited access depending on scheduled events, so it is worth checking what activities are happening during your visit.

During the 2011–2013 INRAP excavation, about thirty archaeologists recorded nearly a thousand burials, including four lead coffins from the 17th century in the church choir, among them that of Louise de Quengo, probably a widow who became a nun here. The site also yielded a sword from the Gallo-Roman period.