Couvent des Clarisses de Roubaix, Historical convent in Roubaix, France

The Couvent des Clarisses de Roubaix is a neo-Gothic brick complex built 1874–1876 by architect Jean-Baptiste Bethune. Its main range has three tall brick dormers with steep gables and white-framed windows, below which run two levels of pointed-arch windows with stone tracery. A polygonal chapel with a pyramidal slate roof and metal cross projects on the right; the cloister holds a statue of Saint Francis, and the former Sainte-Claire school adjoins to the south.

In 1857 Henri Desclée, a pioneer of gas lighting, vowed to install a contemplative community in Roubaix after narrowly avoiding a disaster at his factory. The convent was built from 1874 to 1876 by Baron Jean-Baptiste Bethune, later architect of the Saint-Joseph church, and funded mainly by Desclée's daughter and shareholders. Nine Poor Clares arrived from Tournai in June 1876; expelled under the 1903 Waldeck-Rousseau laws, they returned in 1923 and left in May 2008.

The convent was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and the adjoining girls' school was run from October 1877 by three extern sisters with two hundred pupils. In the cloister stands a statue of Saint Francis. Since 2019 the Saisons Zéro project has tested simple everyday techniques for housing, work and shared living in the former school and part of the monastery.

The former convent and the adjoining Sainte-Claire school stand in the Épeule district, near the church of Saint-Sépulcre; the whole complex has been listed as a monument historique since 2010. Since Zerm left in September 2024, the Saisons Zéro project has been run by the association of the same name, created on 3 July 2024. The chapel is intended for conferences and workshops, so check with the Roubaix tourist office for current visiting arrangements.

In October 2019 the Roubaix architectural collective Zerm won the city's call for projects with Yes We Camp and created Saisons Zéro, a "laboratory of applied frugality" testing simple techniques for housing, work and cohabitation. Zerm left the site in September 2024, handing the project to the association Saisons Zéro, officially founded on 3 July 2024.