What was originally a Carmelite Convent is today a Catholic Institute (University), which you can find on the corner of Rue de Vaugirard and Rue d’Assas.
Carmelites moved in here in the beginning of the 17th century. Some original buildings remain, including the Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes Church, built 1613-20, originally, as the other buildings of the convent, painted in brilliant white. It got the first church copula in Paris, but you need a helicopter to get a good photo of it.
As we can see on the plan from 1739, the convent included large gardens. Here melissa and other plants were cultivated, for the production of Melissa cordial / liqueur (Eau des Carmes, Aqua Carmelitarium), very popular during centuries, used as medicine against digestion and other problems (Cardinal Richelieu used it against migraine), still to be found in pharmacies, but in private hands and produced elsewhere since the 19th century. … and the convent gardens are gone.
The Revolution of course struck here as well. The convent buildings were used as prison for non-juring priests, refractory clergy, who refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the State. 110 of them were killed here in 1792.
The convent could resume its normal activities in 1797. Some modifications to the buildings took place. In 1845 the place was taken over by the Paris archiepiscopal diocese to become a Carmelite School and in 1876 it became the Catholic Institute it today still is, including a Carmelite University Seminary.
New red brick buildings were added during the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.
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