![Galerie des moulages](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Galerie_des_moulages.jpg)
The Musée national des Monuments Français ( en, National Museum of French Monuments) is today a museum of plaster casts of
French monuments located in the
Palais de Chaillot
The Palais de Chaillot () is a building at the top of the in the Trocadéro area in the 16th ''arrondissement'' of Paris, France.
For the Exposition Internationale of 1937, the old 1878 Palais du Trocadéro was partly demolished and partly ...
, 1, place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
. It now forms part of the
Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
The Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine (Architecture and Heritage City) is a museum of architecture and monumental sculpture located in the Palais de Chaillot (Trocadéro), in Paris, France. Its permanent collection is also known as Musée n ...
, and is open daily except Tuesday. An admission fee is charged.
The museum's name evokes the earlier
Musée des Monuments français opened in 1795 by
Alexandre Lenoir
Marie Alexandre Lenoir (27 December 1761 – 11 June 1839) was a French archaeologist. Self-taught, he devoted himself to saving France's historic monuments, sculptures and tombs from the ravages of the French Revolution, notably those of Saint-D ...
, which displayed actual monuments of French Medieval and Renaissance art, removed from churches and châteaux after the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
. Lenoir's museum remained open until the
Bourbon Restoration of 1816, and was highly influential on French taste, making the medievalism of the
Troubadour style popular, and providing inspiration to its artists.
History
![Portail Eglise Saint-Pierre Aulnay-de-Saintonge mid 12th century](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Portail_Eglise_Saint-Pierre_Aulnay-de-Saintonge_mid_12th_century.jpg)
The architect
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (; 27 January 181417 September 1879) was a French architect and author who restored many prominent medieval landmarks in France, including those which had been damaged or abandoned during the French Revolution. H ...
suggested gathering reproductions of French sculpture and architecture at a single site in the
palais du Trocadéro
Palais () may refer to:
* Dance hall, popularly a ''palais de danse'', in the 1950s and 1960s in the UK
* ''Palais'', French for palace
**Grand Palais, the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées
**Petit Palais, an art museum in Paris
* Palais River in t ...
in 1879, in buildings left vacant after the
Exposition universelle in 1878. His proposal was accepted on 4 November.
Alexandre du Sommerard would be designated on 20 December to form the musée de la Sculpture comparée. The institution opened its four rooms to the public on 28 May 1882, three more in 1886 and finally its library and foundational documents in 1889.
The
palais du Trocadéro
Palais () may refer to:
* Dance hall, popularly a ''palais de danse'', in the 1950s and 1960s in the UK
* ''Palais'', French for palace
**Grand Palais, the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées
**Petit Palais, an art museum in Paris
* Palais River in t ...
, refaced and widened by a second gallery but deprived of its central hemispherical hall, under the direction of architect
Jacques Carlu for the
Exposition universelle of 1937, became the
palais de Chaillot
The Palais de Chaillot () is a building at the top of the in the Trocadéro area in the 16th ''arrondissement'' of Paris, France.
For the Exposition Internationale of 1937, the old 1878 Palais du Trocadéro was partly demolished and partly ...
. Wholly redesigned, the museum became the musée des Monuments français. Very avant-garde in terms of its museographic conception and intellectual experimentation, notably through the efforts of the archaeologist
Paul Deschamps
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
* Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
, it had to close down due to an insufficient budget. In July 1995, a fire partially destroyed the building. Its planned reopening in 1998 was pushed back to 15 September 2007 in connection with the creation of the
Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
The Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine (Architecture and Heritage City) is a museum of architecture and monumental sculpture located in the Palais de Chaillot (Trocadéro), in Paris, France. Its permanent collection is also known as Musée n ...
.
Today
It occupies the aile Paris of the Palais de Chaillot and is made up of three galleries. The galerie
Davioud (1878) and galerie Carlu (1937) form a gallery of
plaster casts. The upper gallery serves as an exhibition space for modern and contemporary architectural models. Wall paintings and stained glass windows are located at the end of the modern and contemporary architecture gallery; they are shown on two levels. There is also a library as well as rooms for temporary exhibitions.
Collections
It contains about 6,000 casts of sculptures of all periods including
ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of Classical Antiquity, classical antiquity ( AD 600), th ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, and
Switzerland, but with a strong emphasis on French sculptures of the
Romanesque and
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
periods. It also contains scale models of buildings, copies of architectural elements, sculpture,
frescoes, and
stained glass from French churches and châteaux, as well as a collection of about 200,000 photographs. Most casts were made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Of particular interest is the Galerie Davioud, which displays casts of sculptures from
Strasbourg Cathedral
Strasbourg Cathedral or the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg (french: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, or ''Cathédrale de Strasbourg'', german: Liebfrauenmünster zu Straßburg or ''Straßburger Münster''), also known as Strasbourg ...
(13th century),
Bourges Cathedral (late 13th century), and
Notre-Dame de Reims
, image = Reims Kathedrale.jpg
, imagealt = Facade, looking northeast
, caption = Façade of the cathedral, looking northeast
, pushpin map = France
, pushpin map alt = Location within France
...
. The museum also contains casts of elements from
Angoulême Cathedral
Angoulême Cathedral (french: Cathédrale Saint-Pierre d'Angoulême) is a Roman Catholic church in Angoulême, Charente, France. The cathedral is in the Romanesque architectural and sculptural tradition, and is the seat of the Bishop of Angoul ...
,
Aulnay,
Autun
Autun () is a subprefecture of the Saône-et-Loire department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of central-eastern France. It was founded during the Principate era of the early Roman Empire by Emperor Augustus as Augustodunum to give a Ro ...
,
Cluny
Cluny () is a commune in the eastern French department of Saône-et-Loire, in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is northwest of Mâcon.
The town grew up around the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in ...
,
Conques,
Jouarre
Jouarre () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.
Jouarre Abbey
It is the site of the Jouarre Abbey, a Merovingian foundation of Abbess Theodochilde or Telchilde, traditionally in 630, ...
,
Moissac
Moissac () is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in southern France. The town is situated at the confluence of the rivers Garonne and Tarn at the Canal de Garonne. Route nationale N113 was constructed through ...
,
Sainte-Marie-des-Dames
The Abbaye aux Dames ("Ladies' Abbey") was the first Benedictine nunnery in Saintes in Charente-Maritime in France. The abbey was founded in 1047 by Geoffrey II, Count of Anjou, and his wife Agnes. Agnes later retired to the nunnery and died t ...
at
Saintes,
Saint-Gilles-du-Gard,
Saint-Trophime d'Arles,
Saint-Génis-des-Fontaines
Saint-Génis-des-Fontaines ( ca, Sant Genís de Fontanes) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.
Geography
Saint-Génis-des-Fontaines is located in the canton of Vallespir-Albères and in the arrondissement o ...
,
Saint-Sernin at
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...
, and
Notre-Dame du Port at
Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand (, ; ; oc, label=Auvergnat, Clarmont-Ferrand or Clharmou ; la, Augustonemetum) is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, with a population of 146,734 (2018). Its metropolitan area (''aire d'attract ...
.
File:Cité de lArchitecture et du Patrimoine 2008 001.jpg, Galerie Davioud, romanesque Languedoc room
File:Cité de l'architecture 008.jpg, Galerie Davioud, gothic room
File:Cité de lArchitecture et du Patrimoine 9, Paris 2012.jpg, Galerie Davioud
File:Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine 2.jpg, Galerie Carlu, Provence
File:Cité de l'architecture 014.jpg, Galerie Carlu, XVIth c.
File:Cité de lArchitecture et du Patrimoine 2008 007.jpg, Gallery of modern and contemporary architecture
File:Cité de l'architecture 036.jpg, Gallery of paintings, cupola of Cahors cathedral
File:Cité de l'architecture 037.jpg, Gallery of paintings and stained glasses, crypt
File:Exposition Lyon Confluence (Cité de larchitecture et du patrimoine) (6768146251).jpg, Temporary exhibitions galleries
See also
*
List of museums in Paris
There are around 130 museums in Paris, France, within city limits. This list also includes suburban museums within the "Grand Paris" area, such as the Air and Space Museum.
The sixteen museums of the City of Paris are annotated with "VP", as well ...
*
Musée de Cluny
The Musée de Cluny ("Cluny Museum", ), also known as Musée national du Moyen Âge – Thermes et hôtel de Cluny ("National Museum of the Middle Ages – Cluny thermal baths and mansion"), is a museum of the Middle Ages in Paris, Fr ...
References
External links
Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine''International Herald Tribune'', "France's Monuments Museum: A History of Change", January 8, 1994
{{DEFAULTSORT:Musee national des Monuments Francais
Monuments Francais
Monuments Francais
Monuments Francais
Monuments Francais
1882 establishments in France
Plaster cast collections
Buildings and structures in the 16th arrondissement of Paris
National museums of France