Musée de Cluny, the Latin Quarter’s medieval museum since 1843

The Musée de Cluny, the national museum of the Middle Ages, opened in 1843 in the heart of the Latin Quarter, in the mansion of the abbots of Cluny on rue Du Sommerard. The State had just bought the collection of Alexandre Du Sommerard, and made his son Edmond the first director.

The mansion, rebuilt in the late 15th century by Jacques d’Amboise, abbot of Cluny, is one of the rare survivors of civic architecture in medieval Paris. Mary Tudor stayed there in 1515, James V of Scotland came in 1537 for his wedding, and the astronomer Messier observed from its tower.

Albert Lenoir restored the buildings, listed in 1846 for the mansion and in 1862 for the adjoining Gallo-Roman baths. In 1992 the museum took the name of national museum of the Middle Ages. After a long renovation and a new building by Bernard Desmoulin, it reopened on 12 May 2022.

Opposite the Sorbonne, in the 5th arrondissement, visitors find the frigidarium of the Roman baths, the Gothic chapel and some 23,000 objects, around 2,300 of them on display. The Lady and the Unicorn, six tapestries from the late 15th century, has had its own room since 2013.