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Origin and history

The Stenay Beer Museum is housed in a building from the early 17th century, originally built as a "shop-au-vivres" for the military citadel of Stenay, transformed under the influence of the "Vauban" fortifications. This monument, inscribed in the Historic Monuments in 1986, was used to protect food from attacks. After the French Revolution, he was bought and converted into maltery in 1879, supplying the breweries of Meuse, the Ardennes and Meurthe-et-Moselle until the First World War.

During World War I, the Germans occupied the maltry and dispersed its contents, leaving the building abandoned. Between the two wars, it served successively as a fungus, agglomerated factory and a coal deposit. During the Second World War, he was in turn a French barracks, a German food store and a prison for the Americans. It was only in 1984 that the city of Stenay acquired the building to install a museum, thanks to the action of the Archaeological Group, founded in 1972 to study the local brewing heritage.

The European Beer Museum opened in 1986, presenting more than 48 000 objects collected by volunteers in ten years. In 2008, it was decentralized and integrated into the Meuse museum network, allowing a complete renovation of its museum. The beer garden, created in 2003, showcases the plants used in the manufacture of beer, extending the educational vocation of the museum. Today, the museum holds more than 55,000 items, including Art Nouveau posters, Art Deco stained glass windows and 20th century brewing vats.

Among the major works are a lithographic poster by Alfons Mucha (1897) promoting the Beers of the Meuse, a symbol of Art Nouveau and the brewing advertising of the Belle Époque. A stained glass window by Georges Janin (1926), originally adorning the Palace of Beer of Nancy, illustrates the miracle of Saint Arnould, patron of brewers. The copper vats of the Clavy-Warby brewery (Ardennes, 20th century), never used, bear witness to the industrial techniques of the time. These collections, enriched by the Department of the Meuse, cover all aspects of beer, from its manufacture to its consumption.

The museum offers a variety of programming for all audiences: guided tours, tastings, educational workshops for schools (with mascots Malto and Lupulin), and temporary thematic exhibitions, such as Battle drunkenness (2016) on alcohol consumption during the First World War. Since 1998, a dozen temporary exhibitions have explored topics ranging from girouettes to table arts to the Renaissance, including local history, such as Vézelise and Brasseries de la Meuse (2005).

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