A few words of history
In the middle of the 16th century, the Wars of Religion shook the kingdom of France. Bergerac quickly sided with the Protestants, becoming one of the largest Calvinist centers in Périgord.
The bishop of Périgueux, Monseigneur de la Béraudière, called on the Récollets (mendicant friars of the Franciscan order), already established in several parts of the region, to revive the Catholic faith in Bergerac. It was in the 17th century, under the reign of Louis XIII, that the Récollets obtained the site of the former gardens of the Château de Bergerac for the construction of their convent.
According to the town’s archives, the foundation stone for the convent was laid in 1630, and underneath is the old cellar in which the brothers stored their provisions and barrels of wine. Following the French Revolution, the Récollets were expelled and the convent was seized as national property. In 1792, the Protestant Consistory bought the convent chapel (now the temple).
Cloister of the Récollets
