53 rue Simon
Tel. 03 26 85 23 36
Open: daily pm only
Closed:
Jan 1, May 1, Jul 14, Nov 1 & 11, Dec 25
The Musée Saint-Remi
(Musée Saint-Remi or Musée Saint-Rémi) in Reims, France, occupies the
former monastic buildings of the royal Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Remi.
It is an archaeology and art museum dedicated primarily to the history
of Reims and the Champagne region from prehistory through the
Renaissance, with a strong military history section. Together with the
adjacent Basilica of Saint-Remi (the former abbey church) and other
Reims sites, it forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in
1991 for its outstanding Romanesque and Gothic architecture and its
central role in the early French monarchy.
Saint Remi and the Early Origins
The site’s history
begins with Saint Remigius (Saint Remi or Remy, c. 437–13 January 533),
the long-serving bishop of Reims often called the Apostle of the Franks.
Elected bishop around the age of 22, he is best known for baptizing the
Frankish king Clovis I (and reportedly about 3,000 of his warriors) on
Christmas Eve/Day, traditionally dated to 25 December 496 (historians
generally place it between 496 and 508). This conversion of the Frankish
kingdom to Nicene (Catholic) Christianity, influenced by Clovis’s wife
Clotilde, is a foundational event in French history and helped establish
Reims as the traditional coronation city of French kings.
Remi died
in 533 and was buried in a small oratory dedicated to Saint Christopher
on the outskirts of Reims (then the Roman city of Durocortorum).
Miracles associated with his tomb turned the site into a pilgrimage
center. A community of secular clerics guarded the relics from the
mid-6th century. The relics of Saint Remi were formally associated with
the site by 553. By the 9th century the foundation was among the
wealthiest in France, holding roughly 700 domains.
Foundation and
Medieval Flourishing of the Abbey
Around 760–790, Archbishop Tilpin
of Reims established a Benedictine monastery on the site of the tomb,
which remained under the Rule of Saint Benedict until the French
Revolution. From roughly 780 to 945 the archbishops of Reims themselves
served as abbots. The abbey received major gifts from Carolingian and
later Capetian rulers. Charlemagne received Pope Leo III there. In the
9th century, under Archbishop-Abbot Hincmar, the abbey became the
guardian of the Sainte Ampoule (Holy Ampulla), the vial of sacred oil
used to anoint French kings at their coronations in Reims Cathedral.
This reinforced the abbey’s unique national importance.
Major
building campaigns followed. Abbot Airard began a large Romanesque
church around 1005–1010; after vaulting problems, Abbot Thierry
(Theodoric) completed the magnificent basilica, which Pope Leo IX
consecrated on 2 October 1049 during the reforming Council of Reims. The
church, one of the largest Romanesque structures in northern France
(about 126 m long), received further Gothic remodeling of the choir
around 1170–1180 to better house the shrine of Saint Remi. In the
mid-12th century Abbot Odon rebuilt the cloister and chapter house in
early Gothic style and developed a sculpture workshop. The 12th century
marked the abbey’s apogee.
The abbey owned extensive lands, priories,
vineyards (important in medieval Champagne), and rights across the
region. It suffered decline during the Hundred Years’ War and later
passed into commendatory abbots (from 1482), many of whom neglected it.
Early Modern Period, Fires, and Decline
In 1627 the abbey joined
the reformist Congregation of Saint-Maur (Maurists). A catastrophic fire
on the night of 15–16 January 1774 destroyed much of the monastic
buildings and library (including hundreds of manuscripts such as an
early Phaedrus and the polyptych of Saint-Remi). Architect Louis Duroché
rebuilt the façade, courtyard, and grand staircase (with its ironwork by
local smiths and a portrait of Louis XV in coronation dress). The abbey
was suppressed during the French Revolution: monastic vows were
abolished in 1790, the monks were expelled in 1793, and the Sainte
Ampoule was destroyed that year. The buildings served briefly as a
military barracks.
From the late 18th/early 19th century the complex
functioned as a hospital (Hôtel-Dieu, then civil hospital into the
interwar period). It suffered further damage from German shelling in
World War I (notably 1916). Parts of the cloister had already been used
by 19th-century learned societies as a lapidary deposit.
Transformation into the Museum
The idea of converting the former
abbey into a museum dates to the 1950s. After major restorations
beginning in 1968 to repair war damage, the Direction des Musées de
France and the City of Reims formally created the Musée Saint-Remi in
August 1978 as a municipal museum of history and archaeology. The abbey
buildings (under a long-term lease arrangement with the hospital
authorities) became the museum; the basilica remains a parish church
with basilica rank. The complex was classified as a historic monument in
stages (1889, 1920, 1933) and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage
List in 1991 alongside Reims Cathedral and the Palace of Tau.
The
museum’s collections (more than 35,000 objects) draw on older Reims
municipal holdings, 19th-century archaeological donations and
excavations, and later acquisitions. They cover regional prehistory to
the Renaissance, Gallo-Roman Durocortorum (capital of Roman Belgica),
Merovingian and medieval periods, the history of the abbey itself, and
military history from the Roman conquest through World War II.
Ground Floor
Cloister, parlor, and chapter house: The 18th-century
cloister (by Jean Bonhomme, on the site of the 12th-century Romanesque
one) surrounds a fountain by Guillaume Coustou; the garden is a historic
monument. The chapter house is a Romanesque masterpiece with about 30
small sculpted capitals (c. 1130) featuring fantastic animals, demons,
harpies, sirens, narrative scenes, and vegetal motifs.
Grand
staircase: A stereotomy masterpiece (c. 1700) with a later wrought-iron
railing; it displays an official portrait of the young Louis XV in
coronation costume (workshop of Hyacinthe Rigaud, 1720).
Gallo-Roman
Reims (Durocortorum): In former reception rooms and the 17th-century
refectory, visitors see remains of public monuments, religious items,
funerary practices, mosaics, stelae, and busts. The centerpiece is the
large marble sarcophagus of Flavius Jovinus (Jovin), a Reims-born Roman
general and consul (active mid-to-late 4th century). This imposing
3rd-century work (Marmara marble, roughly 2.85 m long), adapted for him
and featuring a lion-hunt scene (the deceased preparing and then
spearing a lion on horseback), is among the finest surviving ancient
tombs in France. Other highlights include an altar linked to Cernunnos,
Mercury figures, gladiator mosaics, and models of the Roman city and
houses.
First Floor and Key Thematic Sections
Tapestry Room
(former monks’ dormitory): This holds the museum’s most famous
ensemble—the monumental choir hangings of the Life of Saint Remi.
Commissioned in the early 16th century by Archbishop Robert de
Lenoncourt (former abbot of Saint-Remi), the ten large tapestries (each
about 5 m × 5 m, completed around 1531, likely Flemish or northern
workshop after designs associated with Gauthier de Campes) narrate the
saint’s life from childhood through miracles, pastoral work, the baptism
of Clovis, and his final days. They use old French rather than Latin
(unusual for the period) and architectural framing. After years of
conservation work (supported by public and private funding), the
restored set returned to a renovated gallery in early 2026.
History
of the Abbey of Saint-Remi: Sculptural fragments from the site,
including cloister columns and capitals, pieces from the tomb of
Archbishop Hincmar, a fragment of a monumental Mosan bronze candelabrum
(c. 1160), a 13th-century Limoges abbot’s crozier, and the standout head
of the Carolingian king Lothair (12th-century Romanesque masterpiece).
Later items include 17th-century Limoges enamels and objects from the
abbey’s later use as a hospital (Hôtel-Dieu, 1837–1902).
Regional
Prehistory and Protohistory: From the Paleolithic to the Neolithic, with
material from the hypogea of Villevenard (Marne) and a reconstructed
Neolithic burial. Rich grave goods from chariot burials and cemeteries
illustrate the “Marnian” culture (Hallstatt to La Tène periods).
Complementary displays cover Gallo-Roman daily life and crafts (mills,
pottery, jewelry, glass, bone-working) and the monument raised by the
Remi to the sons of Augustus (4 CE).
Late Antiquity to the Middle
Ages: Early Christian marble capitals (4th century); extensive
Merovingian material from regional necropolises (5th–8th
centuries)—sarcophagi, pottery, glass, jewelry, and weapons (including
Frankish pieces from sites like Villevenard). Medieval highlights in the
flying-buttress gallery and sculpture rooms include an 11th-century
Byzantine ivory casket, the “staff of Saint Gibrien,” a small
gilt-bronze head-reliquary, a 14th-century Parisian ivory triptych of
the Virgin and Child, and regional sculpture (11th–early 16th century),
including remnants of civic and religious monuments (such as the
13th-century Musicians’ House façade).
Military history: A
substantial section (hundreds of pieces) traces Reims’ and France’s
military past from the Roman conquest through the Franco-Prussian War of
1870. It covers Champagne regiments, battles such as Valmy and the 1814
Battle of Reims (Napoleon’s last victory), Restoration-era helmets and
cuirasses from Charles X’s coronation parade, Second Empire items, and
1870 war material. Notable works include paintings by Édouard Detaille,
such as The Charge of the 9th Cuirassiers at Morsbronn. Later
20th-century military history is primarily covered at related Reims
museums (Fort de la Pompelle and the Museum of the Surrender of 7 May
1945).
Additional Collections and Context
The holdings also
include 17th-century Reims paintings (notably by Jean Hélart, including
The Risen Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene, 1679), decorative arts,
numismatics, and a significant Japanese collection (primarily assembled
1863–1878 by the Reims entrepreneur Alfred Gérard in Yokohama, later
donated to the city). This comprises arms, Buddhist art, furniture,
ceramics, bronzes, ivories, lacquer, paintings, and prints illustrating
traditional Japan and its 19th-century opening to the West. There are
also Chinese pieces reflecting maritime trade.
The collections grew
from 19th-century private donations and archaeological finds (an early
archaeological museum opened in 1893), later enriched by major
acquisitions in the 1980s–1990s and ongoing excavations. Many objects
were dispersed during the French Revolution; the Holy Ampulla once kept
at the abbey was destroyed in 1793. The museum continues conservation
projects (including recent tapestry restoration) and temporary
exhibitions.