History
article | Reading time2 min
Discover the history of Tours' former lapidary museum, housed for many years in the galleries of the Psalette cloister.
A historic museum
Cathedral fragments
The west gallery of the Psalette cloister is now home to some 50 items from the various restoration campaigns carried out on Saint-Gatien Cathedral in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Part of the cathedral's lapidary collection is on display here.
In 1911, sculptor Georges Delpérier founded the Musée Lapidaire de Touraine in the cloister of the Psalette. He became its curator. The museum was opened to the public and guided tours were offered until 1947.
In the west gallery, along the wall, long shelves were arranged almost the full height to accommodate original stone fragments. Upstairs, two rooms housed sculpture casts.
Ministère de la Culture (France),Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie, diffusion. MN-GP
The lapidary repository leaves the cloister
In 1947, work began on the cloister and the lapidary depository was moved a few meters away to rooms in the cathedral towers. Many fragments and plaster casts are still housed there today.
Ministère de la Culture (France),Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie, diffusion.MN-GP