A beautiful building with a chequered history finally becomes “a place for research and debate for the church and society, around the question of Man and the future of Man.”

photos : JasonW


Let’s be honest; it’s not often that a 13th Century building is finally opened to the public 800 years after being built. Initially a monastery and later used a warehouse, then a fire station until as recently as 1995, the Paris Council sold the Collège des Bernardins to the Paris Diocese in 2001. Restoration work started in 2004, and this weekend saw three open days where the public could finally have a look round.

Purchasing and restoring the building has cost 50.8 million euros ($72.5 million / £41 M), so we were eager to see what had been done. On a quiet street, not too far from the Hôtel de la Sorbonne, I have to admit that I had never even seen the building before. Freshly-restored it looks quite impressive…



The front entrance brings you directly into the Grand Nave, a 70m long room with a row of 32 columns and a ceiling that rises 7 metres high.



Turn to the right (past the gift shop) and you arrive at the old sacristy, obviously smaller than the nave but with impressive height (11 metres!) given extra drama by the sunken level of the floor. Built between 1342 and 1360, it now houses a small exhibition about the history of the building and its renovation. Interesting reading no doubt (we couldn’t get near enough to see because of the crowds of people!).


Back to the nave, and a door in the centre back of the room hides the stairs down to the old cellar, a very long space which has now been divided into a number of small rooms where classes, conferences or debates can take place.


At the end of our visit we were able to walk up the external stairs that link the various floors and give a good view out over the new garden that’s been created…


The renovation seems to have mixed very successfully the modern materials of today with an obvious respect for a building that was declared an official historic monument as far back as 1887! Of course these are only a taste of all the shots we took. Here’s a quick slideshow of the rest of our photos (if you’re wondering why there are lots of the ceiling, it’s because the place was really full of people!). You can look at the photos in much better quality here.

The Collège will open proper early October with talks, cinema and concerts (full details on the official site, but unfortunately all in French). Before then the Pope himself will be dropping in on 12th September, and there will be a special music and poerty installation called “The calm of the night” on 4th October as part of the Nuit Blanche event we told you all about here.

The Collège des Bernardins is at 20 rue de Poissy, Paris 5th arrondissement. Métro Cardinal Lemoine (line 10). Bus n°s 24, 47, 63, 67, 86, 87, 89.

Bigger map here