Musée de l'Abbaye / donations Guy Bardone - René Genis

The Abbey Museum, located on the site of the former abbey of Saint-Claude, is a major cultural venue and a French museum. It houses remains from the Middle Ages and a superb collection of paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries. A real invitation to travel back in time, the museum plunges you into 1,300 years of monastic history and that of an extraordinary donation...

The museum is the result of a donation from two artists: Guy Bardone, a local boy, and René Genis. Their collection features works by several generations of artists, including such great names in modern art as Bonnard, Vuillard, Vallotton and Dufy, as well as donor painters Guy Bardone and René Genis. As for the subsoil, it is home to a priceless archaeological site: the largest, and only, remains of Saint-Claude Abbey known to date. Founded in the 5th century, it is one of the oldest abbeys in France.

Located right in the heart of Saint-Claude, next to the cathedral, the Abbey Museum is in perfect harmony with its natural surroundings. The museum boasts bold, contemporary architecture, with large, bright, open spaces that offer one of the city's most beautiful panoramic views of the surrounding mountains!

Here, more than anywhere else, culture and nature go hand in hand. The Musée de l'Abbaye illustrates this link: each of its wide openings onto its natural surroundings becomes a unique painting echoing the paintings on display. The museum garden invites you to a moment of serenity, where the sculptures face the great bridge of Saint-Claude and the Jura mountains.

The Abbey Museum offers a varied cultural programme accessible to all.
Escape games, dramatised tours, game trails, children's workshops, lectures, artist residencies, concerts, theatre, readings... There's something for all tastes and all ages: so many activities to introduce you to art in a fun way!