Boulogne-sur-Mer Museum: Land of history

In the upper town, Boulogne-sur-Mer’s old castle houses a unique museum. A museum that promises an odyssey through time, a meeting with the greatest artists of yesterday and today, and a journey around the world discovering different cultures. Not bad, eh?

As you wander around the subterranean Gallo-Roman rooms, from the Barbière hall or the guardroom, you will go back through 2,000 years of Boulogne-sur-Mer’s history while discovering Greek ceramics (450 items of the highest quality!), an astounding Egyptian collection with its sarcophaguses and mummy, funeral ceramics from pre-Columbian America, ritual statuettes from Africa, not to mention the immense collection of objects from Alaska.

The museum brings together an ensemble of Sugpiat masks from the island of Kodiak that is unique in the world, and a collection of contemporary Aboriginal art from Alaska.

The Fine Arts department proposes a wonderful ensemble of Italian and Flemish Renaissance paintings along with a large collection of 19th century French paintings and sculptures. Courbet, Corot, Boudin, Sisley, Rodin, Carpeaux…

The greatest artists are here in Boulogne! You’ll also see that the Opal Coast was also a source of inspiration for many artists in the last century. The visit ends with the presentation of a set of paintings donated by the master of Lyric Abstraction, Georges Mathieu who came from Boulogne. Connoisseurs will appreciate!

In parallel with the presentation of the permanent collections, the museum organises activities and temporary exhibitions all year round. If you come with your kids, there’s nothing to worry about, Isidore, our mascot, will look after them to ensure their visit is instructive and fun.

With playful explanations, anecdotes and games, Isidore helps children to find out about the collections, discover distant civilisations and learn with a smile on their faces.