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Origin and history

The Savoy Museum is a departmental museum located in Chambéry, in the former 13th century Franciscan convent, classified as a historical monument in 1911. It was inaugurated on 18 November 1913 to preserve the historical and archaeological memories of Savoy, at the initiative of the Marquis Costa de Beauregard after the Annexation of 1860. The first collections were exhibited in 1889 in a building later became the Museum of Fine Arts.

In 1905, after the law of separation of the Church and the State, the unused convent was transformed into a museum dedicated to local history and ethnography. Closed in 2014 for a complete renovation, it reopened on 29 April 2023 with a modernized museum. The works included archaeological excavations revealing new elements about his medieval past.

Prior to its closure, the museum housed eight permanent rooms: prehistoric and Gallo-Roman objects, Savoyard ethnography, medallist, primitive Savoyards, medieval murals, 16th–XIXth century salons, and a 1939–1945 memorial. Its 70,000 pieces were transferred during the work to a specialized conservation centre.

The building, a former archdiocese adjacent to Saint-François-de-Sales Cathedral, illustrates the architectural and cultural evolution of Chambéry. The renovation has made it possible to improve accessibility, the conservation of collections and the presentation of Savoie heritage, while integrating recent archaeological discoveries.

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