Couvent des dominicains de Collioure, Dominican convent in Collioure, France

The Couvent des Dominicains de Collioure is a former Dominican convent whose church, consecrated in 1457, has a single nave about 42 m long and 14 m wide, without transept or side aisles. The nave is covered by a timber roof resting on stone diaphragm arches, and external buttresses with no structural role flank the walls. The main facade has a large pointed portal of white marble with grey veins and a double archivolte; two arched niches to its left once marked burials. A bell-cote with a small brick cupola stands on the north wall.

Founded in 1290 at the request of King James II of Majorca, the convent received its land from Guillaume Puig d'Orfila, a wealthy bourgeois of a leading Collioure family, who gave buildings about 200 m outside the walls. Pierre Missa was first prior and Jacques de Arulio first lector. The church was consecrated in 1457 after restorations following the Aragonese army's occupation in 1344 and the 1428 Roussillon earthquake. The convent was sold in 1791 during the French Revolution.

The church nave is covered by a timber roof structure resting on stone diaphragm arches, not ribbed vaults; the original exposed framework still reveals traces of painted decoration. Since 1926 the former convent has served as the cooperative wine cellar of Collioure's vintners, known as "Le Dominicain".

Since 1926 the former church has served as the cooperative cellar of Collioure's winegrowers, known as "Le Dominicain". The wine-making installations inside make the interior hard to read as a church, so look for the exposed roof timbers and painted decoration high up. The old cloister wall stands to the right of the former church entrance.

The cloister was partly dismantled and sold off; one arcade survives in a private property at Anglet in the Basque Country, while other vestiges are reassembled in the gardens of the Pams museum in Collioure. The surviving arcades are pointed, cut into three lobes, with four columns each and capitals carved with foliage, human faces and animals.