Museums
Fine Arts Museum (Musée de Beaux-Arts)
|
Located in the ancient royal court of justice (Présidal), the Fine Arts Museum opens out onto the Square Gambetta and the plane-tree-lined boulevards of the Bastide. In 1845, the Arts and Science Society of Carcassonne made a gift of 102 paintings to museum. From then on, apart from the various loans from the Louvre Museum and from the State, the Carcassonne Fine Arts Museum has grown mainly through generous gifts of private collections and donations from its local benefactors. The museum's collections consist mainly of European painting from the XVII to XIX centuries. There is also a collection of fine porcelain (from Moustiers, Marseille, Toulouse) as well as tapestries and artistic objects – which are displayed in alternation http://www.carcassonne.org
|
La Maison des Mémoires / Centre Joë Bousquet
The house at N° 53 Rue de Verdun, now named the Maison des Mémoires or the House of Memories, lives up to its name as a lasting souvenir to the surrealist poet Joë Bousquet. The recently restored home of the poet in the Rue de Verdun is one of the older buildings, some of which date back to the XVI and XVII centuries. In 1925, he moved to the main part of the building at N° 53, living in the shuttered room (which has been preserved in its original state and is open to viewing) where he devoted himself entirely to an intellectual and creative life. In this room, he wrote and corresponded extensively, receiving visitors among whom were the great writers and artists of his time – René Nelli, André Gide, Louis Aragon, Jean Paulhan, to name a few. Visit: Permanent exhibition on Joë Bousquet and his room; temporary exhibitions on the relations between painting and writing |
