Couvent des Cordeliers de Charlieu, Gothic convent in Saint-Nizier-sous-Charlieu, France.
The Couvent des Cordeliers is a Gothic convent in Saint-Nizier-sous-Charlieu defined by its interior galleries with continuous arches and exterior buttresses decorated with rosettes. The building preserves one original gargoyle at its southwest corner and displays fine medieval architectural details throughout its structure.
Franciscans reached Saint-Nizier-sous-Charlieu around 1250 and began building the convent from 1280. In January 1362, during the Hundred Years War, troops of the Tard-Venus destroyed it; it was rebuilt between 1370 and 1390, with three quarters of the cost borne by the Châteaumorand family of Saint-Martin-d'Estréaux. Sold after the 1791 secularisation, it was listed as a monument historique in 1910.
The carved capitals in the north gallery show animals and human figures that medieval craftsmen placed there as expressions of everyday life. You notice a monkey, snake, parrot, and an elderly person among the stone details, suggesting these artisans drew inspiration from the world around them.
The convent stands at 99 Chemin des Cordeliers in Saint-Nizier-sous-Charlieu, in the Loire department. The church runs east-west along the south gallery of the cloister, and the two south chapels open off it. The cloister was rebuilt before the First World War, so some galleries are restorations rather than medieval work.
In 1910, American owners planned to dismantle two gallery sections and use them to decorate a tennis court in California. Local authorities intervened quickly and saved the medieval stonework from being shipped overseas.
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