Historique du musee

History

The Hôtel de Saint-Aignan: key dates

1650 Completion of a townhouse for the Comte d’Avaux, Cardinal Mazarin’s superintendent of Finances. Its design, by the architect Pierre le Muet, is unprecedented in Parisian civil architecture. Notably, it includes a trompe-l’œil wall with false windows and pilasters, built against and masking Philippe Auguste’s old boundary rampart, which creates an illusion of space and symmetry.

Another original feature is the sculpted ‘colossal’ pilasters running uninterrupted the whole height of the facade. The courtyard’s four identical facades, which do not accentuate the mansion’s living quarters as was customary, echo this continuity. In this way, the architect creates an imposing verticality, whose sustained rhythm imbues the edifice with genuine grandeur. Three centuries later, the architecture has lost none of its intensity and visitors continue to be struck by the building’s power.

1688 The Duc de Saint-Aignan acquires the mansion and undertakes its alteration and modernisation. This includes the enlargement of the garden facade, the creation of a main staircase and the dividing up of the first-floor gallery into apartments. Le Nôtre is hired to design a formal garden with ornamental beds. The 20th century restoration work fixed the late 17th century as its period of reference.

1795 Sequestered after the Revolution, the townhouse becomes the town hall of Paris’ Seventh District.

1842 The mansion, having changed hands several times, is divided up into workshops. Transformed into a commercial premises, the building’s only living quarters are on the third floor.

Contemporary photographs, in particular those by Eugène Atget, show life in the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan, now lived in by Jewish immigrants from Poland, Romania and the Ukraine.

1942 During the main roundups of the Jews in Paris, several inhabitants of the building were arrested and deported. Thirteen of them died in Nazi concentration camps.

1962 The Hôtel de Saint-Aignan is acquired by the City of Paris.

1978 The restoration programme begins, directed by Jean-Pierre Jouve, Architect in Chief of the National Office of Historic Monuments and Sites. At this point, the mansion is destined for use by the National Archives of Paris.

1986 On the initiative of the Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan is made available to a museum of Jewish civilisation, the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme.

1991 Start of the second phase of the restoration programme, directed by Bernard Fonquernie, Architect-in-Chief of the National Office of Historic Monuments and Sites.

The restoration

The building’s restoration began in 1978 with the restitution of its original design. Mezzanine floors which had been added were removed and the courtyard and garden were cleared. In 1981, the street facade and the entire roof were restored.

Bernard Fonquernie directed the building’s restoration with a view to it becoming the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme.

The first phase included the restoration of three of the main courtyard’s facades. The frieze of the upper cornice, the balustrade and certain capitals were restored using models which had survived on site or archival documents. The courtyard’s trompe l’oeil facade and wooden elements were restored. The restitution of the sculpted coat of arms of the Saint-Aignan family on the pediment of the courtyard’s main facade is done in accordance with the principle of restoring the mansion to its state at the beginning of the 18th century.

Work continued in 1998 with the restoration of the garden facade according to the Le Muet’s original design, the completion of the courtyard facades, the chapel and the interior, including the reconstruction of the main staircase and the restoration of archaeological elements in certain rooms. The hallway kept its design with niches and the murals in the dining room and in window embrasures were restored and completed, as was a the surviving sculpted wood ceiling in a small drawing room known as the ‘Duke’s Room’.

There is no known description of the garden of the Hôtel d’Avaux. However, when the Duc de Saint-Aignan enlarged the mansion and modified its interior, he had the garden behind the main living quarters redesigned. A report of an inspection of the building work in November 1691 indicates that Le Nôtre was among those working at the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan. The new, classical garden had foliated beds, a round pond in line with the hallway and trellis bowers which concealed the garden’s irregularly shaped far end. Its exact original shape has been retained and, now that the plot has been cleared, the garden can be recreated following its 18th century design.

The archaeological work

Before the courtyard was dug out to create the museum’s auditorium, exploratory excavation was done in the courtyard and garden. The work was directed by Pierre-Jean Trombetta of the Ile-de-France Regional Archaeology Service.

Digging revealed the foundations of the buildings demolished to build the existing one : dating from the late 15th century and the first half of the 16th century (walls, refuse pit, septic pit). Remains linked to agricultural activity dating from the 13th and 14th centuries were also discovered.

These remains were found over a depth of 3.5 metres and were particularly abundant in the courtyard.

A ten-person archaeological team continued the excavations during the second half of 1994.

This dig was particularly important historically as it was the first major excavation in the medieval city between Philippe Auguste's rampart and the fortified monastery of the Templars.

Various archaeological finds will be exhibited in the museum to illustrate the history of this area of the city prior to the mansion’s construction.

The conversion into a museum

In June 1993, the winners of the museum design competition, architects Catherine Bizouard and François Pin undertook the building’s interior reorganisation, assisted in both the conception and implementation phases by architect Loan Mai.

The building has three wings around a courtyard, with a large garden at the back. The adjacent stables became part of the museum. However, the museum project necessitated the creation of additional space beneath the courtyard, the excavation of which was preceded by archaeological digging.

The museum entrance is in rue du Temple. The visitor lingers first in the main hallway, visible from the street outside the main door. Situated at the crossroads of the museum’s various itineraries, it leads to the reception area, the bookshop, the tea room and the main staircase leading to the permanent collections.

The museum’s open-plan ground floor reception area provides access to the vaulted cellars, the auditorium beneath the courtyard, the children’s workshop, the permanent collections and the temporary exhibitions.

The media library and the museum’s administration occupy several storeys of the rue du Temple wing and the stables. Temporary exhibitions, at present located at the end of the permanent collection, will soon be housed in larger spaces in the stables.

The permanent collections are on the first and second floors of the North and West wings.

The museum design’s premise is the continuous contrast throughout the museum of historic architecture (the restored mansion) and contemporary materials and furniture. The original, historic space and contemporary intervention should be perceived as distinct entities. The constraints of a museum have, however, necessitated the building of new staircases.

Since the collections are comprised of numerous objects, documents and textiles, the museum design has had to include a large number of display cases. The wall displays face the windows in the north wing and are situated between the roof timbers in the attic.

The central, free-standing display cases and the reading desks guide the visitor throughout the itinerary. Although the materials used remain constant – metal cases with wood panelled backs against plastered walls or the opposite, cases with a plastered rear set in wood panelled walls – the cases’ wide variety of forms is dictated by their content.
The 20th century collection is exhibited in a series of contrasting spaces, alternating between spacious and intentionally reduced. The mansion’s original use of intermediate floors, which has been partially preserved, has allowed the creation of mezzanines and two spaces two storeys high.

Among Catherine Bizouard’s and Francois Pin’s other projects :

The Louvre : the Italian and Scandinavian sculpture rooms, the Greek, Roman and Etruscan Antiquities rooms and the Copt and Roman Period Egyptian rooms.

The François Truffaut library, Petit Quevilly

The Musée d’Art sacré du Gard, Pont Saint Esprit

Renovation and refurbishment of the extension to the Université Panthéon-Assas, Paris.

Design of the presentation space of the Jewish List at the Mémorial du Martyr Juif Inconnu / Centre de documentation juive contemporaine, Paris.

Renovation of the interior of the Paul Delouvrier Pavilion, Parc de la Villette, Paris.

Renovation of the Musée Chintreuil, Pont-de-Vaux (Ain).

The museum’s explanatory texts

Explanatory texts are vital in a museum whose vocation is to render a complex history and culture understandable. They were designed by Philippe Cazal.

The explanatory texts shed light through the written word, the fundament of Jewish civilisation.

To provide several levels of information, each room has texts adapted to different presentation formats:

- Room titles written directly on the wall in Roman and Hebrew characters.

- Bilingual room titles, in French and English, illustrated and mounted in frames on the walls.

- Texts in glass cases and detailed cards.

- Reading desks, in the window embrasures throughout the museum visit, developing subjects associated with the room’s theme.

The aim of this explanatory text system is to enable the visitor to satisfy his individual need to understand and discover.

The garden project

A partially reconstituted past

The mansion had a garden from the very beginning which, like the building itself, was altered down the centuries, even though the plot remained almost completely unchanged. The garden’s original design has not been found in the city’s archives. However, since the second owner, the Duc de Saint-Aignan, commissioned the architect Le Nôtre to redesign it, we have a good idea of what it was like at the end of the 17th century.

Monsieur Fonquernie, Architect in Chief of the National Office of Historic monuments and Sites, fixed the late 17th century as the reference period for the restoration of the facades, the main staircase, the interior and the garden. In addition, without seeking to recreate Le Nôtre’s garden, this project re-established the original property’s full configuration : its central axis in line with the hallway and the courtyard; its historic boundary and the layout of the original ornamental flowerbeds.

Historical features enlivening a landscape

The key feature of this reconstitution will be the garden’s vegetation. There will be a screen of trees echoing the trellis enclosure at the back. This will complement the climbing vine on the walls surrounding the property’s historic boundaries. Lawns and a bed with trimmed shrubs will structure this new landscape.

Two adjoining leisure areas

Paths will lead walkers around the historic garden and then further on towards to the Berthaud (669m_) and Le Comte (1,090 m2) areas. These two spaces, conceived in harmony with the historic garden (2,220 m2) will have playground activities for infants.

The ensemble of these three areas, comprising a garden space of around 4,000 m2, will no doubt be an additional attraction for the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme.

	History The Hôtel de Saint-Aignan: key dates 1650 Completion of a townhouse for the Comte d’Avaux, Cardinal Mazarin’s superintendent of Finances. Its design, by the architect Pierre le Muet, is unprecedented in Parisian civil architecture. Notably, it includes a trompe-l’œil wall with false windows and pilasters, built against and masking Philippe Auguste’s old boundary rampart, which creates an illusion of space and symmetry. Another original feature is the sculpted ‘colossal’ pilasters running uninterrupted the whole height of the facade. The courtyard’s four identical facades, which do not accentuate the mansion’s living quarters as was customary, echo this continuity. In this way, the architect creates an imposing verticality, whose sustained rhythm imbues the edifice with genuine grandeur. Three centuries later, the architecture has lost none of its intensity and visitors continue to be struck by the building’s power. 1688 The Duc de Saint-Aignan acquires the mansion and undertakes its alteration and modernisation. This includes the enlargement of the garden facade, the creation of a main staircase and the dividing up of the first-floor gallery into apartments. Le Nôtre is hired to design a formal garden with ornamental beds. The 20th century restoration work fixed the late 17th century as its period of reference. 1795 Sequestered after the Revolution, the townhouse becomes the town hall of Paris’ Seventh District. 1842 The mansion, having changed hands several times, is divided up into workshops. Transformed into a commercial premises, the building’s only living quarters are on the third floor. Contemporary photographs, in particular those by Eugène Atget, show life in the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan, now lived in by Jewish immigrants from Poland, Romania and the Ukraine. 1942 During the main roundups of the Jews in Paris, several inhabitants of the building were arrested and deported. Thirteen of them died in Nazi concentration camps. 1962 The Hôtel de Saint-Aignan is acquired by the City of Paris. 1978 The restoration programme begins, directed by Jean-Pierre Jouve, Architect in Chief of the National Office of Historic Monuments and Sites. At this point, the mansion is destined for use by the National Archives of Paris. 1986 On the initiative of the Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan is made available to a museum of Jewish civilisation, the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme. 1991 Start of the second phase of the restoration programme, directed by Bernard Fonquernie, Architect-in-Chief of the National Office of Historic Monuments and Sites.
	The restoration The building’s restoration began in 1978 with the restitution of its original design. Mezzanine floors which had been added were removed and the courtyard and garden were cleared. In 1981, the street facade and the entire roof were restored. Bernard Fonquernie directed the building’s restoration with a view to it becoming the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme. The first phase included the restoration of three of the main courtyard’s facades. The frieze of the upper cornice, the balustrade and certain capitals were restored using models which had survived on site or archival documents. The courtyard’s trompe l’oeil facade and wooden elements were restored. The restitution of the sculpted coat of arms of the Saint-Aignan family on the pediment of the courtyard’s main facade is done in accordance with the principle of restoring the mansion to its state at the beginning of the 18th century. Work continued in 1998 with the restoration of the garden facade according to the Le Muet’s original design, the completion of the courtyard facades, the chapel and the interior, including the reconstruction of the main staircase and the restoration of archaeological elements in certain rooms. The hallway kept its design with niches and the murals in the dining room and in window embrasures were restored and completed, as was a the surviving sculpted wood ceiling in a small drawing room known as the ‘Duke’s Room’. There is no known description of the garden of the Hôtel d’Avaux. However, when the Duc de Saint-Aignan enlarged the mansion and modified its interior, he had the garden behind the main living quarters redesigned. A report of an inspection of the building work in November 1691 indicates that Le Nôtre was among those working at the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan. The new, classical garden had foliated beds, a round pond in line with the hallway and trellis bowers which concealed the garden’s irregularly shaped far end. Its exact original shape has been retained and, now that the plot has been cleared, the garden can be recreated following its 18th century design.
	The archaeological work Before the courtyard was dug out to create the museum’s auditorium, exploratory excavation was done in the courtyard and garden. The work was directed by Pierre-Jean Trombetta of the Ile-de-France Regional Archaeology Service. Digging revealed the foundations of the buildings demolished to build the existing one : dating from the late 15th century and the first half of the 16th century (walls, refuse pit, septic pit). Remains linked to agricultural activity dating from the 13th and 14th centuries were also discovered. These remains were found over a depth of 3.5 metres and were particularly abundant in the courtyard. A ten-person archaeological team continued the excavations during the second half of 1994. This dig was particularly important historically as it was the first major excavation in the medieval city between Philippe Auguste's rampart and the fortified monastery of the Templars. Various archaeological finds will be exhibited in the museum to illustrate the history of this area of the city prior to the mansion’s construction.
	The conversion into a museum In June 1993, the winners of the museum design competition, architects Catherine Bizouard and François Pin undertook the building’s interior reorganisation, assisted in both the conception and implementation phases by architect Loan Mai. The building has three wings around a courtyard, with a large garden at the back. The adjacent stables became part of the museum. However, the museum project necessitated the creation of additional space beneath the courtyard, the excavation of which was preceded by archaeological digging. The museum entrance is in rue du Temple. The visitor lingers first in the main hallway, visible from the street outside the main door. Situated at the crossroads of the museum’s various itineraries, it leads to the reception area, the bookshop, the tea room and the main staircase leading to the permanent collections. The museum’s open-plan ground floor reception area provides access to the vaulted cellars, the auditorium beneath the courtyard, the children’s workshop, the permanent collections and the temporary exhibitions. The media library and the museum’s administration occupy several storeys of the rue du Temple wing and the stables. Temporary exhibitions, at present located at the end of the permanent collection, will soon be housed in larger spaces in the stables. The permanent collections are on the first and second floors of the North and West wings. The museum design’s premise is the continuous contrast throughout the museum of historic architecture (the restored mansion) and contemporary materials and furniture. The original, historic space and contemporary intervention should be perceived as distinct entities. The constraints of a museum have, however, necessitated the building of new staircases. Since the collections are comprised of numerous objects, documents and textiles, the museum design has had to include a large number of display cases. The wall displays face the windows in the north wing and are situated between the roof timbers in the attic. The central, free-standing display cases and the reading desks guide the visitor throughout the itinerary. Although the materials used remain constant – metal cases with wood panelled backs against plastered walls or the opposite, cases with a plastered rear set in wood panelled walls – the cases’ wide variety of forms is dictated by their content. The 20th century collection is exhibited in a series of contrasting spaces, alternating between spacious and intentionally reduced. The mansion’s original use of intermediate floors, which has been partially preserved, has allowed the creation of mezzanines and two spaces two storeys high. Among Catherine Bizouard’s and Francois Pin’s other projects : The Louvre : the Italian and Scandinavian sculpture rooms, the Greek, Roman and Etruscan Antiquities rooms and the Copt and Roman Period Egyptian rooms. The François Truffaut library, Petit Quevilly The Musée d’Art sacré du Gard, Pont Saint Esprit Renovation and refurbishment of the extension to the Université Panthéon-Assas, Paris. Design of the presentation space of the Jewish List at the Mémorial du Martyr Juif Inconnu / Centre de documentation juive contemporaine, Paris. Renovation of the interior of the Paul Delouvrier Pavilion, Parc de la Villette, Paris. Renovation of the Musée Chintreuil, Pont-de-Vaux (Ain). The museum’s explanatory texts Explanatory texts are vital in a museum whose vocation is to render a complex history and culture understandable. They were designed by Philippe Cazal. The explanatory texts shed light through the written word, the fundament of Jewish civilisation. To provide several levels of information, each room has texts adapted to different presentation formats: - Room titles written directly on the wall in Roman and Hebrew characters. - Bilingual room titles, in French and English, illustrated and mounted in frames on the walls. - Texts in glass cases and detailed cards. - Reading desks, in the window embrasures throughout the museum visit, developing subjects associated with the room’s theme. The aim of this explanatory text system is to enable the visitor to satisfy his individual need to understand and discover. The garden project A partially reconstituted past The mansion had a garden from the very beginning which, like the building itself, was altered down the centuries, even though the plot remained almost completely unchanged. The garden’s original design has not been found in the city’s archives. However, since the second owner, the Duc de Saint-Aignan, commissioned the architect Le Nôtre to redesign it, we have a good idea of what it was like at the end of the 17th century. Monsieur Fonquernie, Architect in Chief of the National Office of Historic monuments and Sites, fixed the late 17th century as the reference period for the restoration of the facades, the main staircase, the interior and the garden. In addition, without seeking to recreate Le Nôtre’s garden, this project re-established the original property’s full configuration : its central axis in line with the hallway and the courtyard; its historic boundary and the layout of the original ornamental flowerbeds. Historical features enlivening a landscape The key feature of this reconstitution will be the garden’s vegetation. There will be a screen of trees echoing the trellis enclosure at the back. This will complement the climbing vine on the walls surrounding the property’s historic boundaries. Lawns and a bed with trimmed shrubs will structure this new landscape. Two adjoining leisure areas Paths will lead walkers around the historic garden and then further on towards to the Berthaud (669m_) and Le Comte (1,090 m2) areas. These two spaces, conceived in harmony with the historic garden (2,220 m2) will have playground activities for infants. The ensemble of these three areas, comprising a garden space of around 4,000 m2, will no doubt be an additional attraction for the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme.