Tour 41 – Musée d'Art moderne, Donation Maurice-Jardot

Belfort is a fortified town in the gap between the Vosges and the Jura, and its main museums are connected with its great citadel, built on a rock above the town by Vauban in the late seventeenth century and strengthened in the nineteenth. The collections shown in the citadel are an art and history museum, and it is worth confirming the exact arrangements with the tourist office.

The museum is spread across more than one site. One part is found in the Tour 41, a tower of the fortifications, which holds works of art in a large circular hall, the annular hall, whose curved walls give it an unusual and rather dramatic setting. The collection there is largely of modern art, formed around the gift of the art historian and dealer Maurice Jardot, who was associated with the great Paris gallery of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, and it presents work by the artists of the early twentieth century, with a particular interest in Cubism and its successors. Other fine arts collections, of paintings and sculpture of earlier centuries, are shown in a separate location in the town, along with archaeological finds from the region, from prehistory to the Roman period.

The history of Belfort is also a major theme. In the winter of 1870 and 1871, during the Franco-Prussian War, the town held out for more than three months against a German siege under Colonel Denfert-Rochereau, and its resistance, which lasted until the army was ordered to surrender, saved the Territoire de Belfort from being handed over to Germany with Alsace. The museum displays material about the siege and the military history of the fortress. The sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, born in Colmar, designed the Lion of Belfort, a huge sandstone lion carved into the rock below the citadel, to commemorate this resistance, and a section of the museum is devoted to his work and to his better-known creation, the Statue of Liberty.

Opening times and admission prices are set by the museum and the town, so consult the official site. The museum is accessible to many visitors with reduced mobility, with arrangements in place. Allow two hours or more if you visit more than one site.

The museum suits lovers of modern art, history enthusiasts and families, and it combines with a visit to the Citadelle de Belfort, the Lion and the old town, with its Marché Couvert and the Théâtre de Belfort.