Lycée Théodore-de-Banville, Historic high school in France

Lycée Théodore-de-Banville is a public secondary school at 12 cours Vincent-d'Indy in Moulins, between the public hospital and the post office. It occupies the former Visitation convent founded in 1616; the original convent building still stands on rue de Paris, while the school is now entered from the opposite end of the complex on cours Vincent-d'Indy. Its grounds include the former convent chapel, used as the school chapel until 1998, which holds the tomb of the Duke of Montmorency carved by Anguier.

Created by the law of 11 Floréal Year X (1 May 1802) and inaugurated on 16 June 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte, the lycée replaced the École centrale de l'Allier and an earlier Jesuit college. It occupied the former Visitation convent, founded in 1616. The chapel was classified as a monument historique in 1928, the monumental gate in 1929 and the nuns' chapel in 1946. German troops used the premises as a barracks from 19 June 1940 to 6 September 1944.

The school is named after the poet Théodore de Banville, born in Moulins. Its chapel, used by the school until 1998, holds the tomb of the Duke of Montmorency, executed in 1632 for plotting against Richelieu; his widow Marie-Félicie des Ursins retired to the convent in 1637 and funded the monument carved by Anguier. A memorial plaque in the courtyard lists students and teachers who died for France in the Resistance.

The school is a working lycée, so the chapel and courtyard are not open to the public as a museum; access is from the cours Vincent-d'Indy side, between the public hospital and the post office, not through the original rue de Paris building. The monumental gate and the chapel of the former Visitation convent are the elements protected as monuments historiques since 1928, 1929 and 1946.

In 1975 the school was one of 58 French secondary establishments chosen by the Ministry of Education for an experimental computer-science programme, where pupils and teachers wrote programs in the LSE language and ran a computer club. The chapel kept serving as the school chapel until 1998.