Couvent des Ursulines

The Ursuline sisters moved to Crest in 1635 in a beautiful two-storey house and founded there a school for poor girls. During the French Revolution, the house was divided in parts which were sold as a national good to several buyers.

Along with the Visitandines, the Ursulines convent was one of the two women's convents in Crest's inner city.
The Ursulines belonged to a teaching order founded in Northern Italy in 1536, and began teaching the poor as early as 1631.
At the request of the consuls of Crest, the nuns of Saint-Ursule settled in Crest in the 17th century, from 1635 to 1750. Their teaching was fee-paying, except for the most disadvantaged.
105 years later, the order was suppressed by Louis XV, who ordered the closure of all convents in France. The buildings were then used for the Collège de Crest.
At the time of the French Revolution, the architectural complex was dismembered and purchased by a number of private individuals.

Architecturally, the convent is a two-storey house with mullioned windows; adjoining the house is a large terrace supported by a gallery of ten arches, visible from the lower town. The small building crossing the street served to link the Convent to the chapel gallery. Its doorway is framed by two engaged columns with Ionian capitals and decorated with cornices and friezes, dating from 1640.