One of the first buildings in France designed as a museum, with an iron-framed hall and a Romanesque portal inside.
€285one way from Beaune with a private driver
Private driver from Beaune: 1 h 19 by road (109 km), €285 one way for the whole car.
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The Musée du Hiéron, a short walk from the basilica, was built at the end of the 19th century to hold a collection of sacred art. Behind its classical façade, a metal frame in the spirit of Eiffel and wide glass roofs light the galleries. Today it is a free municipal museum that traces two thousand years of Christian art, with a 12th-century portal from Anzy-le-Duc at its heart.
The visit starts in the central hall, under the metal roof, where the carved Romanesque portal from Anzy-le-Duc, nearly 900 years old, stands at the end of the room. Around it, bright galleries lit from above hang Italian, Spanish, Flemish and French paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries, many on the theme of the Eucharist, together with sculpture and goldsmiths' work. Each year a contemporary art exhibition sets new work among the old masters, and concerts are sometimes held under the glass roof.
The idea came from the Jesuit Victor Drevon, who wanted a museum and library devoted to the Eucharist in the town of the Sacred Heart. Baron Alexis de Sarachaga, born in Bilbao in 1840, met him during the pilgrimage of 1873 and gave his fortune to the project, gathering works of art from across Europe between 1881 and 1884. The Paris architect Noël Bion built the museum between 1890 and 1893. Its name comes from the Greek hieros, sacred.
The library was sold in 1948, and the building closed in the early 1990s after water damage. The town restored it completely in 2005 and made it a municipal museum with the Musée de France label; the building has been listed as a historic monument since 2015. In November 2024 armed robbers stole parts of its most precious piece, the Via Vitae by the Paris jeweller Joseph Chaumet, a national treasure since 2000, and the town plans to show the work again once it is restored.
Checked on on the official site.
Entry is free, by decision of the town, and a box for donations stands at the exit. The museum opens from Wednesday to Sunday, and every day in July and August, with a break at lunchtime. It is about five minutes' walk from the basilica, so the two fit easily into one morning. Guided visits can be booked in French, English, German and Italian, and the building is accessible to wheelchair users.
What to combine with Musée du Hiéron on the same day, nearest first.
Musée du Hiéron is about 1 h 19 from Beaune by road (109 km). With a private driver, the trip from Beaune starts at €285 for the whole car, up to 4 guests.
Did you know? Baron Alexis de Sarachaga, who paid for the Hiéron, spoke seven languages and had begun a career as a Spanish diplomat before he gave his fortune to the museum.
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€285 one way from Beaune · up to 4 guests
