
The Musée national des Monuments Français (; ) is today a museum of plaster casts of
French monuments located in the
Palais de Chaillot, 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, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. It now forms part of the
Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine, 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, which displayed actual monuments of French Medieval and Renaissance art, removed from churches and châteaux after the
French Revolution. 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

The architect
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc 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.
Edmond 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. 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, 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.
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 () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...
,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, and
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, but with a strong emphasis on French sculptures of the
Romanesque and
Gothic periods. It also contains scale models of buildings, copies of architectural elements, sculpture,
fresco
Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...
es, and
stained glass
Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...
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 (13th century),
Bourges Cathedral (late 13th century), and
Notre-Dame de Reims. The museum also contains casts of elements from
Angoulême Cathedral
Angoulême Cathedral () is a Roman Catholic church in Angoulême, Charente, France. The cathedral is in the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque architectural and sculptural tradition, and is the seat of the Bishop of Angoulême.
Architecture and ...
,
Aulnay,
Autun
Autun () is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Saône-et-Loire Departments of France, department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region of central-eastern France. It was founded during the Principate era of the e ...
,
Cluny,
Conques,
Jouarre,
Moissac,
Sainte-Marie-des-Dames at
Saintes,
Saint-Gilles-du-Gard,
Saint-Trophime d'Arles,
Saint-Génis-des-Fontaines,
Saint-Sernin at
Toulouse
Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
, and
Notre-Dame du Port at
Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand (, , ; or simply ; ) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population of 147,284 (2020). Its metropolitan area () had 504,157 inhabitants at the 2018 ...
.
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
*
Musée de Cluny
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