Musée national des Monuments Français
Encyclopedia
The Musée national des Monuments Français is a museum of French
monuments located in the Palais de Chaillot, 1, place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, Paris
, France
. It now forms part of the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
, and is open daily except Tuesday. An admission fee is charged.
, Italy
, Germany
, and 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
es, and stained glass
from French churches and châteaux, as well as a collection of about 200,000 photographs. Most copies were made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Of particular interest is the Galerie Davioud, which displays casts of sculptures from the Strasbourg Cathedral
(13th century), Bourges Cathedral (late 13th century), and the Notre-Dame de Reims. The museum also contains copies of elements from Angoulême Cathedral, Aulnay
, Autun
, 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
, and Notre-Dame du Port
at Clermont-Ferrand
.
opened the Musée des monuments français to the public and served as its administrator for 30 years, but he had to restore most of its collections to their former private and public owners on the Bourbon Restoration
in 1816. What remained would be partly moved to the Louvre
in 1824 (in the galerie d'Angoulême under the generic term of musée de la sculpture française) and partly in the musée de Versailles in 1836.
suggested gathering reproductions of French sculpture and architecture at a single site in the palais du Trocadéro 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, almost completely destroyed 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, he had to close its doors 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 to the creation of the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
.
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It occupies the aile Paris of the Palais de Chaillot and is made up of 3 galleries. The galerie Davioud and galerie Carlu form a gallery of plaster cast
s. 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.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
monuments located in the Palais de Chaillot, 1, place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. It now forms part of the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
The Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine is an architecture museum located in the Palais de Chaillot at 1, Place du Trocadéro, Paris, France. It is open daily except Tuesday; an admission fee is charged....
, and is open daily except Tuesday. An admission fee is charged.
Collections
It contains about 6,000 casts of sculptures of all periods including ancient GreeceAncient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, but with a strong emphasis on French sculptures of the Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
and Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
periods. It also contains scale models of buildings, copies of architectural elements, sculpture, fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
es, and stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
from French churches and châteaux, as well as a collection of about 200,000 photographs. Most copies were made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Of particular interest is the Galerie Davioud, which displays casts of sculptures from the Strasbourg Cathedral
Strasbourg Cathedral
Strasbourg Cathedral or the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Strasbourg, France. Although considerable parts of it are still in Romanesque architecture, it is widely consideredSusan Bernstein: , The Johns Hopkins University Press to be among the finest...
(13th century), Bourges Cathedral (late 13th century), and the Notre-Dame de Reims. The museum also contains copies of elements from Angoulême Cathedral, Aulnay
Aulnay
Aulnay is the name or part of the name of several communes in France:* Aulnay, Aube, in the Aube département* Aulnay, Charente-Maritime, in the Charente-Maritime département* Aulnay, Vienne, in the Vienne département...
, Autun
Autun
Autun is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in Burgundy in eastern France. It was founded during the early Roman Empire as Augustodunum. Autun marks the easternmost extent of the Umayyad campaign in Europe.-Early history:...
, Cluny
Cluny
Cluny or Clungy is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France. It is 20 km northwest of Mâcon.The town grew up around the Benedictine Cluny Abbey, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in 910...
, Conques
Conques
Conques is a commune in the Aveyron department in southern France.-Geography:The village is located at the confluence of the Dourdou and Ouche rivers. It is built on a hillside and has classic narrow Medieval streets. As a result, large vehicles cannot enter the historic town centre but must...
, Jouarre
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, inspired by the visit of Columban, the travelling Irish...
, Moissac
Moissac
Moissac is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in southern France. It is famous world-wide mostly for the artistic heritage handed down by the ancient Saint-Pierre Abbey.-History:...
, Sainte-Marie-des-Dames
Sainte-Marie-des-Dames
The Abbey of Sainte-Marie-des-Dames was the first Benedictine abbey for women in Saintes in Charente-Maritime in France. It was founded in 1047 by Geoffrey II, Count of Anjou...
at Saintes
Saintes
Saintes is a French commune located in Poitou-Charentes, in the southwestern Charente-Maritime department of which it is a sub-prefecture. Its inhabitants are called Saintaises and Saintais....
, Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, Saint-Trophime d'Arles, Saint-Génis-des-Fontaines
Saint-Génis-des-Fontaines
Saint-Génis-des-Fontaines is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.It is home to a Benedictine abbey, founded in the late 8th or early 9th century.-References:*...
, Saint-Sernin
Saint-Sernin
Saint-Sernin may refer to the following places in France:* Basilique St-Sernin, Toulouse, the basilica of Toulouse, France* Saint-Sernin, Ardèche, a commune in the department of Ardèche* Saint-Sernin, Aude, a commune in the department of Aude...
at Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, and Notre-Dame du Port
Notre-Dame du Port
The Basilica of Notre-Dame du Port is a Romanesque basilica, formerly a collegiate church, in the Port quarter of Clermont-Ferrand, between Place Delille and the cathedral...
at Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of 140,700 . Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census. It is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department...
.
Alexandre Lenoir
In 1795, Alexandre LenoirAlexandre Lenoir
Marie Alexandre Lenoir was a French archaeologist. Self-taught and devoted to saving France's historic monuments, sculptures and tombs from the ravages of the French Revolution, notably those of Saint-Denis and Sainte-Geneviève.- Life :The ravages of the Revolution caused the birth of the Musée...
opened the Musée des monuments français to the public and served as its administrator for 30 years, but he had to restore most of its collections to their former private and public owners on the Bourbon Restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
in 1816. What remained would be partly moved to the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
in 1824 (in the galerie d'Angoulême under the generic term of musée de la sculpture française) and partly in the musée de Versailles in 1836.
Viollet-le-Duc
The architect Eugène Viollet-le-DucEugène Viollet-le-Duc
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was a French architect and theorist, famous for his interpretive "restorations" of medieval buildings. Born in Paris, he was a major Gothic Revival architect.-Early years:...
suggested gathering reproductions of French sculpture and architecture at a single site in the palais du Trocadéro in 1879, in buildings left vacant after the Exposition universelle
Exposition Universelle (1878)
The third Paris World's Fair, called an Exposition Universelle in French, was held from 1 May through to 10 November 1878. It celebrated the recovery of France after the 1870 Franco-Prussian War.-Construction:...
in 1878. His proposal was accepted on 4 November. Alexandre du Sommerard
Alexandre Du Sommerard
Alexandre Du Sommerard was a French archaeologist and art collector.-Life:He volunteered for the army at 14 and took part in the French Revolutionary Wars...
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, almost completely destroyed under the direction of architect Jacques Carlu
Jacques Carlu
Jacques Carlu was a French architect and designer, working mostly in Art Deco style, active in France, Canada, and in the United States....
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, he had to close its doors 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 to the creation of the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine
The Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine is an architecture museum located in the Palais de Chaillot at 1, Place du Trocadéro, Paris, France. It is open daily except Tuesday; an admission fee is charged....
.
Today
Plaster cast
A plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – particularly in palaeontology .Sometimes a...
s. 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.