Collège des Bernardins

The Collège des Bernardins is defined by its austere, thirteenth-century Gothic architecture, which has survived centuries of near-oblivion in the fifth arrondissement. Founded in twelve forty-eight by Étienne de Lexington, the abbot of Clairvaux, it was built with the support of Pope Innocent the Fourth to house Cistercian monks who traveled to Paris to study at the university.