Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Museum of Old Lacaune is housed in a building in the Place du Griffoul in Lacaune, one of the few buildings keeping 16th century architectural elements, such as a staircase, a fireplace or friezes. This place, probably a consular house, housed in the 18th century local Protestant personalities, then a religious school in the 19th century before being acquired by the town hall in 1970. Today, it hosts exclusively the museum, which extends over fifteen thematic rooms.

The museum's origin dates back to the 1989 temporary exhibition organized by the local initiative union. Its success led to the creation of an association in 1992, dedicated to historical research, the conservation of built heritage and the transmission of traditional objects. The collections, authentic and maintained by volunteers, illustrate the daily life of the inhabitants of the Monts de Lacaune between the 18th and 20th centuries.

The museum rooms reconstruct scenes of rural, artisanal and bourgeois life, with costumes, agricultural tools, a forge, an early 20th century school, and a section on the local resistance. Among the remarkable pieces are a Renaissance fireplace, an 18th-century library, and objects related to the wild child captured in 1798 near Lacaune. The museum particularly highlights traditional hats and clothing, as well as lost trades such as wool work.

The managing association regularly publishes historical articles in municipal bulletins and local notebooks, while organizing exhibitions to raise awareness among younger generations of the region's cultural heritage. The building itself, with its attic and vaulted basements, is an architectural testimony complementary to the collections.

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