Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The François-Pompon Museum came into being in 1930, when the municipality of Saulieu created a Morvan Museum of Ethnology in a 17th century former presbytery, adjacent to the Basilica of St.Andoche. This place exhibits local artisanal objects (smith's tools, sabotier, farmer) and archaeological pieces, reflecting traditional morvandelle life. The initiative aims to preserve the region's physical and cultural heritage, which was marked by a rural economy and ancestral know-how.

In 1932, the sculptor François Pompon, born in Saulieu in 1855 and formed by Auguste Rodin, chose a museum hall to install a gallery dedicated to his work. When he died in 1933, he left 300 sculptures to France, originally preserved in Paris and then in Dijon. The François Pompon Museum was officially inaugurated in July 1934, combining its artistic heritage with existing ethnographic and archaeological collections. The establishment becomes a museum of France, highlighting sacred art (Romanesque vierge, Christ of the 12th century), Gallo-Roman antiques, and a gastronomic hall honoring chefs Alexandre Dumaine and Bernard Loiseau, linked to the restaurant La Côte d'Or.

The museum is organized on two levels: the ground floor features Greek and Gallo-Roman antiques, traditional tools, and a reconstruction of a morvandelle house, while the floor houses 22 Pompon animal sculptures, characterized by their clean and polished style. Temporary exhibitions, conferences, and a shop complete the offer. The building, classified for its 17th century architecture, plays a central role in valuing the local heritage, between art, history and traditions.

The collections enrich over time with ecclesiastical deposits (wood stalls of the basilica, 13th century charters) and private donations, such as minerals or numismatic pieces. The museum also preserves mouldings of the basilica's task-marks, the funeral steles of the Sedolocum necropolis, and the Gaulish ex-votos discovered in a local fountain. These elements illustrate the historical continuity of the Morvan, from prehistoric to modern times, while celebrating the figure of Pompon, symbol of Burgundian art.

Today, the museum remains a place of memory and transmission, located in the Place du Docteur-Roclore in Saulieu, in a building adjacent to the basilica. Its label Musée de France and its location in the heart of a city marked by gastronomy (with the starred restaurant La Côte d'Or) make it a major cultural actor of Burgundy-Franche-Comté. Pompon's works, such as the White Bear or the Taupe, are accompanied by archaeological remains and testimonies of the lost trades, offering an immersion in the morvandelle identity.

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