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Origin and history

The Cohue Museum, located in Vannes, Brittany, occupies a building whose origins date back to the thirteenth century, with major expansions in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Originally, this place, called "Cohue" (a Breton term for halls), belonged to the Duke of Brittany and served both as a market and space for the states of Brittany, gathered ten times between 1431 and 1703. Its architecture combines a central nave, low side, and a large transversal room on the floor, added in the 15th century, while Romanesque remains remain under the current structure.

The Shua became the property of the city in 1813 and was transformed into a theatre, active until the 1950s. After a period of degradation, the building was restored from 1970 onwards, revealing medieval architectural elements such as torchi walls, dust windows, and a 14th century chimney. The excavations also revealed traces of an ancient staircase and carved capitals, one of which represents sirens and an owl, re-used in the masonry.

Since 1982, Cohue has been home to the Vannes Museum of Fine Arts, exhibiting municipal collections of paintings and engravings, as well as temporary exhibitions of contemporary art. The building, inscribed in the Historical Monuments in 1929, illustrates the evolution of its uses: commercial hall, place of justice (room of the Presidual), theatre, and then museum. Its west façade, redesigned in the 19th century, and modern staircases show successive adaptations.

The restoration campaigns allowed us to find the original layout of the interior volumes, notably the Council Chamber (XIVth century) and the Presidial Hall (XVth century), modified in 1653 by the replacement of the half-timbered walls with masonry walls. The structure, initially apparent, was also taken over on that date. During the Revolution, the building served as a Civil Court, marking a transition to its modern public functions.

The museum, labeled "Musée de France", highlights works by artists such as Olivier Debré, François Morellet or Aurélie Nemours, while preserving the memory of the historical uses of the place. The east gate, adorned with a third-point archvolt and flowered capitals, as well as the three inner doors, have been protected since 1929. The current address, 22 rue des Halles, places the building in the heart of the city, facing St. Peter's Cathedral.

Archaeological and textual sources, such as the general pleas of the Presidual or the observations of Dubuisson Aubenay (1636), confirm the complexity of its history, mixing commercial, judicial and cultural functions. The restorations of the 1970s allowed to stabilize the structure while revealing details such as the Romanesque foothills or traces of the medieval staircase, called "peron" in the eighteenth century.

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