Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours

The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours is housed in the former archbishop's palace beside the Cathédrale Saint-Gatien, at place François-Sicard. The palace was built in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and after the Revolution the building was turned over to the display of confiscated art, which became the core of the museum. Today it ranks among the best provincial fine-art museums in France, and a visit combines paintings, furniture and a calm garden in one historic setting.

The most famous works are two panels by Andrea Mantegna, Christ in the Garden of Olives and the Resurrection. They come from the predella of an altarpiece painted for San Zeno in Verona, and they reached France after Napoleon's armies seized art in Italy in the late 1790s. Tours kept them while other panels from the same altarpiece went elsewhere, so the museum holds a notable piece of Italian Renaissance art far from Italy. A small Rembrandt, The Flight into Egypt, is another highlight, an early work with dramatic light and a tiny group of figures moving through darkness.

The collection also reaches across the French school, with eighteenth-century work by Boucher, nineteenth-century canvases by Delacroix and Ingres, and later works by Degas and Monet. There is also sculpture, including a piece by Rodin, and the rooms preserve the character of an old residence, with period furniture and woodwork that make the visit feel less like a gallery and more like a walk through a great house. Pictures range from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, so you can trace several centuries of taste in a single morning.

Outside, the formal garden is a pleasant place to rest. A huge cedar of Lebanon, planted in the early nineteenth century, shades the lawn, and a stuffed elephant named Fritz, which once belonged to the Barnum and Bailey circus and died in Tours in 1902, is displayed in the grounds, an oddity that children often remember best.

The museum is close to the Château de Tours, the Place Plumereau and the old town, so it combines easily with a day in the city. It suits art lovers, families and visitors who want a quieter alternative to the busiest Loire sights. Check the museum's website for current hours, ticket rates and temporary exhibitions before you go.