Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The house of rue des Orfèvres in Moulins, built between the 15th and 17th centuries, was acquired in 1461 by Guillaume Moreau, secretary of the Duchess of Bourbonnais. This gabled building and wooden gangway, with a restored sandstone screw staircase, changed owners several times before being bought in 1937 by the Bourbonnais emulation society. In 1939 it established a museum of ethnography, transformed in 2004 into a museum of the Visitation, dedicated to religious order and its artistic heritage.

In 1990, in the face of the threatening disappearance of the Visitation de Moulins monastery, Gérard Picaud proposed to keep a trace of this order. With the help of partner monasteries, he gathered 602 objects (art works, relics, devotional objects) to create in 1992 the permanent exhibition Regard sur la Visitation, integrated into the Bourbonnais museum. The collections, enriched up to over 19,000 works in 2005, led to the autonomous creation of the European Museum of Visitation, recognized by the Holy See.

The building, classified as a Historical Monument in 1947 for its wooden staircase and medieval structure, illustrates bourbonese civil architecture. Its wooden balustrade galleries, connected to a staircase turret, bear witness to the constructive techniques of the 15th and 17th centuries. Since 2007, the museum has organized temporary exhibitions at the Demoret Hotel, attracting more than 100,000 visitors.

The building was initially linked to the sale of the Duke of Bourbon's wines, as evidenced by its storage spaces. Its acquisition by the Bourbonnais emulation society marked a heritage turning point, allowing the preservation of a rare example of a wooden staircase with ground balusters, arranged around a hollow core. The frame, supported by structural poles, and the rectangular cage open to the outside make it a remarkable architectural model.

The museum's exhibitions highlight monastic treasures, including embroidery, silks and liturgical objects, from European monasteries. The catalogues published annually (since 2007) and the collaborations with institutions such as the Pontifical Council for Cultural Property of the Church highlight its international influence. The site, managed by a secular association, thus perpetuates the memory of four centuries of visitandine presence in Moulins.

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