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Origin and history

The museum of the cloister of Notre-Dame-en-Vaux, located in Châlons-en-Champagne, is a medieval sacred art museum founded in 1976. It was born from the archaeological excavations carried out since 1963 by Léon Pressouyre on the site of the former cloister of the Collège Notre-Dame-en-Vaux, erected around 1170 and destroyed between 1759 and 1766. This cloister, a masterpiece of the transition sculpture between Romanesque and Gothic art, housed 77 column statues, including fragments and capitals of rare quality, now exhibited in the museum.

The museum also preserves a 16th century Polychrome Pietà, offered by Jean and Alisson Poussin. The collections illustrate the artistic and religious importance of the site, once the spiritual heart of Châlons-en-Champagne. The present building, although dated from the 17th century by Monumentum, serves to describe these medieval remains, classified as Historic Monument for their facades and roofs since 1938.

The excavations of Léon Pressouyre revealed major architectural elements, such as sculpted capitals and columns, bearing witness to the influence of the college in the Middle Ages. The museum is part of a local heritage network, alongside the Museum of Fine Arts and the Garinet Museum, highlighting the historic richness of the city. The sources, including the works of Sylvia Pressouyre and Jean-Paul Barbier, document this missing cloister, symbol of the medieval stylistic transition.

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