Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Mount of Piety of Bergues, built between 1629 and 1633 on the plans of engineer Wenceslas Cobergher, initially served as a pawnshop. He ceased his activity in 1848 and was then transformed into a gendarmerie barracks and a civil court from 1870. Ranked a Historic Monument in 1907, it became the municipal museum after its post-Second World War restoration.

The museum, officially inaugurated in 1956, preserves works from revolutionary seizures, including paintings from Saint-Winoc Abbey and local convents. In 1795, an inventory of 650 works, 167 of which were collected in the museum in 1961. Among them are masterpieces by Brueghel the Ancien, Rubens, or Georges de La Tour.

The collection was enriched by donations, such as that of Pierre-Antoine Verlinde in 1877, which offered more than 1,500 drawings and sketches by European masters. The museum also presents a natural history section, inaugurated in 1964, after acquiring collections of birds, insects and archaeology to replace specimens destroyed during the wars.

The building, marked by Flemish Baroque architecture, combines marble and limestone elements, with cradle vaults and basket coves. After decades of partial closures and restorations, it remains a major testimony of Bergues' cultural and historical heritage, labeled "Musée de France".

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