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Origin and history

The Musée du Pays Châtillonnais - Treasure of Vix is installed in an old Cistercian abbey founded in the 12th century by Bernard de Clairvaux, in Châtillon-sur-Seine. Its collections cover a period from Prehistory to the 19th century, with objects from local excavations, including Mount Lassois and the cave of La Grande Baume. The museum also houses remains of the Iron Age (Hallstatt and La Tene), Roman Gaul, and medieval and modern objects, including reliquaries and sculptures.

The museum is famous for its treasure of Vix, discovered in 1953, which includes the largest bronze crater in the world (1.64 m high, 208 kg) and a gold torch of 480 g, from the grave of a Celtic princess dated 2,500 years. It also exhibits objects related to the Gallo-Roman city of Vertillum, such as a statue of Bacchus stolen in 1973 and found in 2019. A room is dedicated to Marshal Marmont, Napoleon's friend, with personal objects and portraits.

Founded in 1882 by the Châtillonnais Archaeological and Historical Society, the museum first occupied the Philandrier Hotel, a Renaissance building acquired in 1928. In 2009, he moved to Notre Dame Abbey, offering 2,000 m2 of exhibition. The museum showcases a variety of collections, including xylogravure matrices from the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as a 19th century birdwatch collection offered by Fernand Daguin, a local lawyer and naturalist.

The museum also features merovingian objects, sarcophagus, and elements of architecture bearing witness to the economic and spiritual power of the Châtillonnais between the 13th and 15th centuries. Part of the collections are dedicated to natural sciences, with local species collected by Fernand Daguin, decorated with the Legion of Honour in 1894. He worked on hunting laws in Europe and left his collection to the city in 1922.

The museum is labeled "Museum of France" and is distinguished by its Celtic, Gallo-Roman and medieval remains. He is the only one in Europe to highlight the figure of Marshal Marmont, whose personal and political objects illustrate the upheavals of post-1789 Europe. Its current location, the Notre Dame Abbey, combines medieval buildings renovated in the 17th and 18th centuries, with an entrance gate overlooking a court of honour adjacent to the Notre Dame church.

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