Dijon Museum of Sacred Art (Musée d’Art sacré de Dijon)

What you will see

Step into the circular church beneath its dome. The centrepiece is the high altar, where a porphyry canopy shelters Jean Dubois's Baroque sculpture of the Visitation. Around it are painted statues, processional staffs, embroidered vestments, reliquaries and silverware, many from the churches of Côte-d'Or. The displays also recall daily life in women's religious communities, especially Cistercian and Carmelite nuns. The round plan lets you take in the whole space at a glance.

History

Dijon only became a bishopric in 1731, so it has no cathedral treasury. In 1970 Canon Jean Marilier began gathering endangered works from the churches of Côte-d'Or to keep them safe. A 1975 agreement between the city and the state turned the church of Sainte-Anne into a store for sacred art, and the museum opened permanently on 27 June 1980.

The church had already received works from closed convents after the Revolution. Today the collection counts about 6,100 objects, many of them deposited by Burgundy communes, and 168 are protected as historic monuments. Since 1993 the museum has been attached to the neighbouring Musée de la Vie bourguignonne. The church itself has been listed as a historic monument since 1945.