The Church of the Jacobins is a deconsecrated

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

church located in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

, France. It is a large brick building whose construction started in 1230, and whose architecture influenced the development of the ''Gothique méridional'' (Southern French Gothic) style. The relics of

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wit ...

are housed there. In the two centuries following the dissolution in France of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...

at the time of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

, it served various different purposes before undergoing major restoration in the 20th century. In the early 21st century, it was partially converted into a museum. Toulouse being the city where the Dominican order was founded in 1215, the Convent of the Jacobins of Toulouse is sometimes considered the mother church of the order, although it was not the first convent built by the Dominican friars. Other churches such as

Santa Sabina The Basilica of Saint Sabina ( la, Basilica Sanctae Sabinae, it, Basilica di Santa Sabina all'Aventino) is a historic church on the Aventine Hill in Rome, Italy. It is a titular minor basilica and mother church of the Roman Catholic Order of Pre ...

in Rome also claim this title.

Name

The name Jacobins is the nickname that was given to the Dominican Order in the Middle Ages in France. Their first convent in Paris was located in the rue Saint-Jacques, (Latin Jacobus), and that name came to be attached to the order itself. The building complex is called a

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...

, although nowadays this term usually refers to a community of women, because in its historical usage the term convent was applied to communities of mendicant orders to differentiate them from the monasteries of monastics.

History

First church

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (; , ; oc, Lengadòc ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately ...

in the early 13th century, Catharism, which the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

considered a

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

, was strong and growing. In 1215, the future Saint Dominic founded in

a small community of monastic preachers to combat the heresy, and starting in 1230, the friars began the construction of a small church in which to preach. Built entirely of pink

Roman brick Roman brick can refer either to a type of brick used in Ancient Roman architecture and spread by the Romans to the lands they conquered; or to a modern type inspired by the ancient prototypes. In both cases, it characteristically has longer and f ...

, this first building was half as long and half as high as the present church, and very simple in design, in line with the order's vow of poverty. It consisted of a double nave, one side for the friars, and one for the congregation, separated by pillars and screens.

Expansion

Over the next century, as congregations grew, the church was enlarged and embellished. Between 1245 and 1252, it was extended with the addition of a

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

with side

chapels A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common type ...

. Between 1275 and 1292, the height of the choir was increased, and a vaulted roof constructed. In response to the technical difficulty posed by creating a vaulted roof for the new space, the builders installed one oversized column in the centre from which the ribs radiated outwards in all directions. This feature has come to be known as ''Le Palmier des Jacobins'', the palm tree of the Jacobins. Between 1275 and 1315, the height of the choir was increased, and high windows created above the chapels. The seven-storey bell tower was also added at this time. Starting in 1325, a new, higher vaulted roof was constructed for the nave in order to bring it into line with the choir. The last component of the century-long expansion of the church was the construction of the chapel of Saint Antonin (separate from the church itself), between 1335 and 1341.

Relics

Couvent des Jacobins de Toulouse - Autel de St Thomas d'Aquin

, author of the '' Summa Theologiae'' and canonised in 1323, was a member of the Dominican order. In 1368

Pope Urban V Pope Urban V ( la, Urbanus V; 1310 – 19 December 1370), born Guillaume de Grimoard, was the head of the Catholic Church from 28 September 1362 until his death in December 1370 and was also a member of the Order of Saint Benedict. He was the ...

decreed that his remains be transferred from Italy where he died to the Jacobins, the mother church of the order. When they arrived in 1369, they were placed in a stone reliquary beside the altar. After being moved to Saint Sernin at the time of the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

, they were returned to the Jacobins in 1974 when the restoration of the church was complete.Les reliques de Saint Thomas D´Aquin
/ref>

Dissolution

Following the

of 1789, the Dominican order was banned, and the friars forced to leave. In 1804 the conventual complex including the church became the property of the city of Toulouse, and in 1810 the emperor

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

requisitioned the church and converted it into a barracks. Floors were installed to create upper storeys for dormitories, while stables and an armoury occupied the ground floor. During the period the building served as a barracks, the stained glass windows were destroyed, and the medieval paintings in the choir were painted over with whitewash. Un monument en peril; la période noire
/ref>

Monument and museum

Citizens who were appalled at the destruction succeeded in 1861 in convincing the army to move to new barracks. In succeeding years, the building housed an exhibition of Arts and Industries (1865), served as a playground for the pupils of the nearby Lycée Fermat starting in 1872, and as a place to safely store treasures from the museums of Paris during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Several periods of restoration work were undertaken over the course of the 20th century. In 1905 the floors installed by the army were removed; starting in 1923 blocked windows were uncovered and stained glass installed; between 1953 and 1963 the chapels were reconstructed; and between 1965 and 1974 the whitewash covering the medieval murals was removed. Today the building functions as a museum.

Architecture

The round arch at the base of the south side is a vestige of the original romanesque church, while the three solid

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...

es correspond to the double-nave layout of the interior which was retained as the church grew. Otherwise the Jacobins is considered a leader in the development of the ''Gothique méridional'' (Southern French Gothic) style. One of the most typical characteristics is the fact that it is constructed entirely of brick. Also characteristic is the style of the south wall between the buttresses. Each section consists of a tall Gothic ogival (pointed) arch with a small rose window at the top, and below that a lancet window. The spaces between the buttresses of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

also show the same ogival arch, in which is set a tall, narrow triple-lancet window. There is hardly any decoration, which is considered to have been a conscious choice aimed at differentiating this church from the highly elaborate Gothic of northern France.Toulouse Église des Jacobins de
/ref>
/ref> The

also served as a model in the development of Southern French Gothic architecture in presenting a very unified space. The double-nave layout, however, one side for the friars and the other for the congregation, turned out to be inconvenient and was not imitated, whereas the choice of

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression membe ...

to support the Gothic

vaulted In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...

roof was. Each slender column, only 1.4 metres (4 feet 7 inches) in diameter for a height of 28 metres (92 feet), including 22 metres for the stone shaft (72 feet), supports eight of the

ribs The rib cage, as an enclosure that comprises the ribs, vertebral column and sternum in the thorax of most vertebrates, protects vital organs such as the heart, lungs and great vessels. The sternum, together known as the thoracic cage, is a semi- ...

of the vaulted ceiling, and the six columns divide the nave into six bays. A seventh column continuing the same line supports the 22 ribs of the vaulted roof of the choir, the famous Palm Tree. This masterpiece is considered a precursor to the complex structures of the later Gothic. La façade des Jacobins - panoramio.jpg, Southern French Gothic architecture (13th c.) Cloître et clocher des Jacobins.jpg, The cloister (14th c.) Jacobins-cloitre-5(1).jpg, The galleries of the cloister Nef-jacobins-toulouse.jpg, The nave and its pillars (13th c.) Toulouse-Jacobins-voûte.jpg, Vault of the church, 28 metres high (1275-1292) Palmier des Jacobins.JPG, The Palm Tree of the Jacobins (13th c.) Toulouse_-_St_Thomas_d'Aquin.jpg, Reliquary of Thomas Aquinas Jacobi% 20(3)(1).jpg, A keystone Jacobins-07(1).jpg, The chapter hall Jacobins-06(1).jpg, Chapel of Saint Antonin Jacobins-refectoire(1).jpg, The refectory Toulouse - Clocher des Jacobins.jpg, The bell tower Jacobins-13.jpg, The church over the roofs Toulouse - Jacobins et ND du Taur.jpg,

References

{{Authority control Roman Catholic churches in Toulouse Gothic architecture in France History of Toulouse