This is the convent of Gravelbourg, a small town in Canada that boasts a long-time motto: “a touch of Europe on the prairie.”

For over a decade this stately building—a true stunner in the middle of very little else—has been useless and vacant, but the town is determined to preserve it until someone can propose a use that suits Gravelbourg and its needs.

Town planners hope that will be housing, but many ideas have come across their desk in the last few years, including a prison, and a casino.

Built in 1917 along with a Cathedral and a building called the Bishop’s Palace, which has found a second life as a B&B, the trio are designated national historic landmarks of Canada, and were established by Frenchmen who wanted to create a true center of French culture on the prairies of North America.

They brought over classic building styles and materials, which can be seen about the town’s main street, at the railway station, and certainly inside the cathedral.

At its height, the convent looked after 600 students at its primary school. When the school changed locations, the town took over management of the property until that became too cost-prohibitive. Now, Gravelbourg hopes to find a savior for the old building who will preserve it as much as possible.

“Something of this size you’ll never see again. It’s an original,” said the Town of Gravelbourg’s economic development officer, Ariel Haug, who was speaking with CBC News. 

A local immigrant, Toos Giesen-Stefiuk, who moved to Gravelbourg from her home in the Netherlands in 1981, felt right at home in the town, and has become not only a booster of the local history, but part of an association looking to turn the convent into a 42-unit housing complex.

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The estimated cost was around CAD$15 million in 2019 dollars, but the project never took off. Housing is a major priority across Canada, and Giesen-Stefiuk believes that the time will soon come again when her and her colleagues’ proposal will be revisited.

The building itself will be signed over to the new ownership, whoever that proves to be, for free, as long as they come with a plan to develop and maintain it.

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Giesen-Stefiuk sees in the convent an element of the windmills in her home country.

“When I grew up in Holland as a child, there were windmills and they were not in use anymore and they were tearing them down till somebody said, ‘We should keep some,’” she said. “And who doesn’t know about the windmills in Holland?”

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