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Origin and history

La Châtellenie La Mairie, also known as Hôtel de la Noble Cour, is a 16th-century building located in Cassel, northern department. Seat of the old chestnut and the Court of Justice of Cassel until the Revolution, it is distinguished by its facade combining Flemish and Italian Renaissance styles. Ranked a historic monument in 1910, it dominated the Grand Place and housed judicial institutions before becoming a museum.

The museum originated in 1837 when Charles Vanoverschelde, a naturalist born in Halluin, gave his natural history cabinet to a private foundation for 3,500 francs. Located in the former Town Hall, the museum gradually enriched with ethnographic and artistic gifts, abandoning its initial focus on mineralogy and paleontology. In 1889 he became a city, marking a turning point in its management and collections.

During World War I, Marshal Foch established his headquarters there in 1914. At the end of the conflict, he offered his kepi to the museum, followed in 1938 by his uniform, given by his widow. These events revive the idea of a museum dedicated to the Great War, but the Second World War interrupted these projects. In 1940, the former Town Hall, then seat of the museum, was bombarded, resulting in the partial loss of collections. About 50 pieces, including the Cassel Carnival of Alexis Bafcop, had been sheltered in Sarthe.

After the war, the collections are temporarily displayed at the Taverne Hotel in Saint-Antoine. In the 1950s, Abbé Verstraete revived the idea of a museum on World War I and offered his military collection in 1951. Henri Descamps, curator, then designed a project to unify ethnographic and historical collections. The Cassel Museum of History and Folklore opened in 1964 in the Hotel de la Noble Cour, inspired by Georges Henri Rivière's ethnographic museums.

Departmented in 1997, the museum closes for security reasons before reopening in 2010 after extensive work. Renamed the Departmental Museum of Flanders, today it presents 6,000 pieces organized in thematic diptychs (Submission and anger, Between Earth and Heaven), mixing ancient art, ethnography and contemporary creation. The museum journey, not chronological, highlights Flemish cultural diversity.

The Hotel de la Noble Cour, owned by the Northern Department, remains a symbol of Cassel's judicial and cultural history. Its architecture, its role during the two world wars and its transformation into a museum make it a major heritage site of the Hauts-de-France, combining local memory and regional outreach.

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