Visiting L'Église des Jacobins

The beauty of Toulouse can't be hidden, not even when it rains.

This afternoon we visited the Church of the Jacobins as part of a city tour. Our guide, Laura, explained that the construction of the church began in 1230. The nickname "Jacobins" was given to the Dominican order in the Middle Ages because the first convent was found on Rue Jacobins in Paris. A small community of preachers settled in Toulouse with the mission to spread Catholism and to combat the spread of heresy. This building, an exceptional example of southern gothic design, served as their base as they went out into the community to meet people and share the gospel of the Catholic church.

The relics of one of the most famous members of the Dominican order, Thomas Aquinas, can be found in a stone reliquary beside the altar. I love the enthousiasm of our students. One exclaimed, "That is SO cool. We learned about him in history class... my teacher is obsessed." Putting education into context via travel gives knowledge so much meaning.​

Any one who has a "carte d'étudiant" can enter the cloister free of charge. Since our entire CIEE crew has student cards, of course we wandered in to check it out. When the building served as a church/monastery and not as a museum, the monks walked the corridors of the cloister to pray in silence. According to Laura, the open courtyard design was intentional, because it allowed their prayers to float freely to the heavens. In the middle of the courtyard is a garden where they monks used to tend to herbs.

Today, the cloister welcomes students and offers a peaceful place to study or simply meditate in the quiet. There were even chairs and some tables set up around the perimeter to accomodate visitors.

As we moved through the corridors of the cloister, Laura pointed out engravings on the walkway. Denisse read the ancient French for us (no small task!), and we determined that the person buried beneath us had worked as a candlemaker.

According to Laura, the two rooms on the other side of the cloister are currently used for concerts because of their exceptional accoustics. She directed us to look closely at the paintings on the wall in the second room and asked us to guess why the paintings on the bottom 10 feet of the walls had disappeared. We were surprised to learn that Napoleon seized the cathedrale after the French Revolution, banned the order, and forced the friars to leave. He transformed  the building into a barracks complete with dormitories, an infirmary, and stables for the horses. Over time, the paintings wore away due to the horses rubbing against the walls.

Everything here has such a rich history compared to what we're used to in the United States of America. This is one of the many reasons we're walking around Toulouse wide-eyed and eager to take in every drop of our surroundings... even in the rain!