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Key figures

Origin and history

The Marais Poitevin House is an eco-museum dedicated to the history of the Marais Wet and its inhabitants, located in the village of Coulon, an emblematic commune of the Deux-Sèvres. Opened in 1988 under the name Maison des Marais wet by an association law 1901, it occupies a seigneurial house of the 16th century, recognizable by its dovecote and its Renaissance window with sawn logs. The Place de la Coutume, where it is located, derives its name from the feudal rights collected until the Revolution for the passage of goods on the Niortian Sèvre.

In 1995, the museum was enlarged and provided with an educational service approved by the National Education. Since 2009, it has shared its premises with the Niort-Marais Poitevin-Vallée de la Sèvre tourist office, and has received approximately 35,000 visitors annually. In 2015, he won the Quality Tourism brand, rewarding his hospitality and services. Its permanent and temporary exhibitions (such as Les peuples du maris in 2015) illustrate maraîchine life, the batellerie, or the eel fishery, with models and projections.

The museum collaborates with the Marais Poitevin Regional Natural Park for thematic exhibitions, such as Napoleon and the Marais (2008) or Les arbres du Marais Poitevin (2013). Its eco-museum approach highlights local ecosystems and the history of marsh development, from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era. The animated model and the Maraiscope make it possible to visualize these transformations, while rooms reconstruct traditional interiors or shipbuilding workshops.

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