Musée de la Chartreuse

Installed in the former convent of the Carthusian monks since 1958, the museum includes several buildings: the Abancourt mansion (1559) and the wing built by the Montmorency family (1608) dominated by a high square tower. The Flemish Renaissance facades combine stone and brick and are punctuated by mullioned windows topped by pediments. The convent (1959) includes a small and a large cloister, a refectory, a chapter house and the church. It is connected to the old parts by the "logis des hôtes" (1690), whose fleur-de-lis anchors remind us that the town was French at the time of its construction. The museum's collections amount to more than 10,000 works of art and can be discovered in a chronological tour that traces the evolution of European art from the Middle Ages to the modern era. From the primitive Spanish, Italian, Flemish and Dutch paintings to the nod to our sculptor Carpeaux, we end with Buren's contemporary work "the red hut with mirrors".