The former Ursuline convent, now the Ursulines Brewery

Historic site and monument

4 côte Chausson
38460 Crémieu

This convent was founded in 1633 by six Ursuline nuns from Bourg-en-Bresse. They lived in the vast buildings that are now occupied by a craft brewery.

It was with some hostility that the municipal authorities of Crémieu welcomed six nuns from
Bourg-en-Bresse on August 18, 1633, at the instigation of Baron Bertrand de Breul, to found yet another
convent there. Thanks to donations, the Ursulines had a large convent building constructed between 1664 and 1668, followed by a church from 1732 to 1738. The Ursulines added a fourth vow to the Rule of Saint Augustine:
the education of young girls. While basic academic instruction was not neglected, propriety remained
the central focus of their educational approach. The annals record 3,180 students enrolled between 1633 and 1792.

But the Revolution forced the Ursulines to leave Crémieu in 1792. The convent successively became a detention center in 1794, a secondary school in 1805, and during the 19th and 20th centuries, various industries set up shop there: a shoe factory, weaving mills, a flower factory, and even a bleach factory !

A second Ursuline convent was established in the former Hôtel Dubourg starting in 1806, continuing the order’s
educational presence in Crémieu, though it never regained the prominence of the first.
Today, the former Ursuline church, restored in the early 2000s, houses a craft brewery that highlights the site’s history while giving it a new cultural and social purpose.