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Origin and history

The Protestant Museum of the Wassy Barn is housed in a reconstitution of the barn where, on 1 March 1562, a massacre of Protestants took place by the troops of Duke François de Guise. This event, known as the Massacre of Wassy, marked the beginning of the religious wars in France, which lasted until the edict of Nantes in 1598. The museum, inaugurated in 1889 and renovated in the 1970s, preserves the memory of this tragedy through remains and historical objects.

The original barn, transformed into a temple, was rebuilt next to a 19th century house to evoke the site of the massacre. The museum exhibits ancient Bibles, engravings, medals and panels tracing the history of Protestantism, with a focus on religious intolerance. It also offers temporary exhibitions, such as those dedicated to the edict of Nantes or to the Reformed Church of Wassy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

In the 1970s, Pastor François Cormouls-Houlès and his wife, from the parish of Saint-Dizier, revived the museum by founding the Committee Reformed of the Wassy Barn (formerly Ecumenical Committee of Meeting). Their work allowed restorations and a new inauguration, consolidating the role of the site as a place of memory and interfaith dialogue.

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