Church of the Jacobins

Church of the Jacobins tickets: which one to buy

The Jacobins is ticketed, cheaply, and the ticket covers the church and the cloister; the chapter house and the chapel of Saint Antonin are usually included when open. Buy at the door. This is the one building in Toulouse that repays a slow visit, and the city knows it: deckchairs are put out in the nave in summer so that people can sit and look up, which is not a gimmick but the only comfortable way to see the vault.

Walking tours of the city include the church along with the great Romanesque basilica ten minutes north and the brick mansions of the merchant quarter. Concerts and a piano festival use the nave in September and are ticketed separately; the acoustics are unusual and worth hearing. The cloister is free on certain days. Allow an hour, more if the light is good, and note that the church closes on Mondays in some seasons.

Visiting Church of the Jacobins: what to see

The Dominicans founded their house here in 1230, a few years after the order began in Toulouse, and the church they built is southern Gothic taken to its limit: a single wide hall with no aisles, brick throughout, divided down the middle by a line of seven columns carrying the vault. The last of them, at the east end, fans out into twenty-two ribs spreading across the apse ceiling like the spokes of an umbrella, and it has been called the palm tree for six centuries.

Nothing else in Gothic architecture looks quite like it. The windows are filled with modern glass in strong colours that throw light across the brick. Under the altar lie the relics of Thomas Aquinas, brought here in 1369 and returned after a long absence. Beside the church, the cloister was dismantled during the revolution, when the building served as a barracks and a stable, and rebuilt in the twentieth century. Fragments of fourteenth-century wall painting survive on the piers and in the refectory next door.

Church of the Jacobins opening hours and the best time to go

Afternoon light does the most for the interior, coming through the south windows and washing the brick with colour. The church closes over lunch in some seasons and one day a week; check before making the walk. Toulouse is hot in July and August and the brick holds the heat, but the nave stays cool. The piano festival in September is the highlight of the cultural year and fills the church.

The cloister is a quiet place to sit at any time and is planted with box and cypress. The city centre is compact, with the market halls, the riverside and the basilica all within fifteen minutes, and the aerospace museum on the outskirts needs half a day of its own. Evening in the surrounding streets is lively, since this is a student city and the bars start late. The refectory is used for temporary exhibitions and is included in the ticket when one is running.