Art-Historical Museum of Saint-Léger

Art-Historical Museum of Saint-Léger

The museum is located in the former Abbey of Saint-Léger. See: halls of archaeology, local history, and painting. In 1847, the Société Historique de Soissons set itself the goal of creating a museum. The collections, originally installed in the town hall in 1857, were damaged by the war of 1914–1918. In 1933, the new museum was opened in the former Abbey of Saint-Léger, where it still stands. Since 1950, the museum has been reorganized. It continues to be enriched by discoveries from archaeological excavations in the Aisne valley and local history documents. The painting collections are supplemented with the help of FRAM (Regional Museum Acquisition Fund).
In the scenography, renovated in 2019, the fine arts hall of the museum presents a new painting on the theme of love.
The collections interpret this universal feeling in many forms, regardless of time and civilizations.
Divine, intimate, legendary, or destructive love inspired artists. They drew from the sources of Greco-Roman mythology, biblical and historical accounts, and sometimes more simply — from their own experience.
The Ministry of Culture's wish catalog enriched this journey of love with a portrait of Gabrielle d’Estrées and Diane. This painting was loaned by the National Museum of the Château de Fontainebleau.