Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The museum originated in 1883 when the discovery of a treasure of 16th-century silver and gold coins in Die encouraged the municipality to exhibit these coins in a showcase of the city's archives. This discovery marks the beginning of a desire to preserve the local heritage, concretized in 1895 by a deliberation of the Municipal Council to create a museum. The institution finally opened its doors in 1905, enriched by the donation of part of the collections of the Société française d'archéologie, offered to the mayor of Die.

In 1949, the museum moved to a mansion from the 17th to 18th centuries, allowing to expand its exhibition spaces. A new extension took place in 1967 with the acquisition of an important collection of local archaeology, constituted in the 19th century. These successive acquisitions allow us to cover periods ranging from Prehistory (with a menhir engraved from the Moustarian, around -35 000 years) to the medieval period, passing through the Gallo-Roman period, marked by a lapidary collection dedicated to Cybelus.

The museum's collections also cover objects bearing witness to the Wars of Religion, Revolution and Resistance, as well as ethnological elements related to religious and collective practices. The mansion that houses the museum, built between the 16th and 18th centuries, is itself a remarkable architectural heritage, labeled Musée de France.

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