Musée du Périgord

The Musée d’art et d’archéologie du Périgord in Périgueux is the oldest museum in the Dordogne department, founded in 1835. Located in the heart of Périgueux, the museum occupies a former Augustinian convent, which has held the status of a Monument historique since 2020. The city of Périgueux itself is built on a site occupied since prehistoric times, with Gallo-Roman foundations dating to around 16 B.C.

The museum houses over 45,000 works of art across 2,000 square meters of exhibition space. Its prehistoric collection is the fourth largest in France, featuring 18,500 references displayed by site and period. Highlights include a 450,000-year-old double-sided tool from La Croix du Duc and a 14,000-year-old fossil skeleton from Raymonden. The medieval collections span the 4th to 15th centuries, comprising pieces from demolished buildings and excavations. The fine arts collections, presented chronologically in the cloister and right wing, cover the 16th to 21st centuries, using color-coded backgrounds to represent specific centuries.

The museum also features a significant extra-European ethnography collection, the seventh largest in France, with a focus on Africa and Oceania. Visitors can explore a 2,000 m² permanent exhibition covering art history from prehistory to contemporary art. The museum serves as a complementary resource to other major prehistoric museums in the region and hosts various temporary exhibitions. For further information, contact 05-53-06-40-70 or visit https://www.perigueux-maap.fr/. This institution offers a profound insight into the rich cultural and historical heritage of the Périgord region.