Located in the heart of the 7th district of Paris, Penthemont Abbey is a former monastery of Augustinian nuns founded in the early 13th century near Beauvais. Flooded in the seventeenth century, the latter moved to Paris in order to welcome girls from good family and serve as a place of retirement for quality ladies. Joséphine de Beauharnais stayed there during her separation from her first husband.
Entirely rebuilt in the 18th century because too small, the abbey of Penthemont was abolished in 1790 following the events of the French Revolution, then transformed into barracks a few years later. Devoted to the Reformed cult in the mid-19th century, it later housed the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Today, the building is classified as a Historic Monument and is inscribed for its facades, its roof on the main courtyard and its central and first floor living room.