Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Ussel Country Museum was founded in 1976 from the collections of the Penitent Chapel, initially focused on religious art and local ethnography. These collections have been enriched by collection campaigns, incorporating objects related to traditional trades, religious practices and regional history, especially from the Limousin between the 13th and 19th centuries. The museum covers four emblematic buildings: the Hotel Bonnot de Bay (XVIIIth century), the Dumond printing house (specialised in musical scores), the Moncourier-Beauregard house (control of the Usselois habitat under the Old Regime) and the Chapel of the Penitents (XVth century).

The Bonnot Hotel in Bay exhibits lost trades such as forging, weaving or woodworking, as well as 17th-15th century tapestries and works by 20th century painters-cartons. The printing works, installed in a house of the seventeenth century, preserve the lithographic and typographical material of the Dumond printing house, with initiation courses organised every summer. The chapel of the Penitents, an ancient Cimetral church Saint-Martial, houses collections of art and religious ethnography, while the house Moncourier-Beauregard illustrates the local domestic life with its cantou and its inner well.

The museum highlights the cultural heritage of Ussel, between the Millevaches plateau and the Triuzoun and Dordogne valleys. It covers various fields: fine arts, ethnology, local history, and music, with an ancient background of prints and traditional instruments. Labeled Musée de France, it plays a key role in preserving the know-how and traditions of this Limousin region, which is now part of New Aquitaine.

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