Port-Royal convent, Port-Royal Hospital

Following a Cistercian order the cloister appears today as a vast, austere and dignified space. The original project of 1646 by the architect Le Peautre reveals a different intention: the east wing was to be punctuated by semi circular arches and decorated with carved keystones and spandrels. The monastery was built on three sides with twelve, thirteen and sixteen regular bays, three of which are glazed. A coped wall connects the elliptical arches. All this frames a garden divided into symmetrical plots, built in the 20th century.

Historical
The Cistercian Abbey of Port-Royal-de-Paris was founded in 1626, in coexistence with the first abbey “Port-Royal-des-Champs” built in the 13th century and considered too small. They gradually became a real Jansenist centre (where Pascal was infact converted), but soon Louis XIV, under the instigation of the Jesuits, expelled the nuns and ordered the demolition of the first abbey. The second survived until the opening of the Boulevard in the 19th district, which spared only a few parts, today classified as historic monuments and incorporated in the Cochin Hospital.