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Origin and history

The Hotel de la Princerie, located in Verdun in the Meuse, was originally the residence of the princeess, the first dignitary of the diocese after the bishop, until the abolition of this office in 1385. The present Renaissance building was rebuilt in 1525 by the brothers Jacques and François de Musson, canons of the cathedral. Gravely damaged during World War I, it was bought by the city in 1926, restored, and became the Princerie Museum in 1932, home to local art and history collections.

The museum's collections come from the Philomathic Society of Verdun, founded in 1822, which formed a natural history cabinet before enriching its holdings with art objects, legacies and state deposits. After several moves in the 19th century and a fire in 1894, the works were evacuated during the First World War. The museum settled permanently in the Princerie Hotel in 1932, obtaining the label Musée de France in 2003. His collections cover Prehistory, Gallo-Roman and medieval periods, as well as the history of Verdun and the Meuse.

Ranked a historic monument since 1921, the Princerie Hotel illustrates Renaissance civil architecture, with an interior courtyard, a garden and elements reminiscent of its religious vocation, such as a Gothic oratory and a gallery evoking cloisters. The museum exhibits medieval sculptures, earthenware, paintings (including works by Jules Bastien-Lepage), archaeological objects and testimonies of the 1870 and 1914-1918 wars. The garden, built into a lapidary museum, features merovingian sarcophagus and Gallo-Roman tombstones.

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