Palais Rohan De Strasbourg: Home To Three Exceptional Museums

First up among the museums in the Palais Rohan de Strasbourg is the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Museum of Decorative Arts), on the ground floor. Originally the apartments of the Cardinals of Rohan, you can explore the main and most luxurious of the dwelling spaces of the original building, as well as the rich collection of decorative arts. The collection is made up of pieces from in and around Strasbourg from the 17th to the 19th centuries and includes ceramics, furniture, jewellery, sculpture, and more. The museum was established in its current form in the years in the 1920s upon the transfer of the collections of the 19th century Kunstgewerbe-Museum Hohenlohe, to the stables wing adjacent to the palace apartments. While the collection was the most badly damaged among the museums during air raids in WWII, it has been carefully restored and replenished and is full of extraordinary luxury objects and craftsmanship.

The Musée des Beaux-Arts (Museum of Fine Arts) (Museum of Fine Arts), meanwhile, is located on the first and second floors of the palace and became the main municipal art collection after the previous museums, the 19th century Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture (Museum of Painting and Sculpture) was entirely destroyed by Prussian artillery shelling and a resulting fire in 1870. Opened in the Palais in 1899, the museum presents and overview of European art that charts the various movements, styles, and artists at work from the 13th century up to 1871. It is a rather extraordinary collection with lots of serious heavy hitters and very famous artists represented among the pieces on display, including paintings by Hans Memling, Correggio, Anthony van Dyck, Giotto, Pieter de Hooch, Botticelli, Jacob Jordaens, Tintoretto, Rubens, Filippino Lippi, Piero di Cosimo, Raphael, Veronese, Guercino, Canaletto, Giambattista Tiepolo, Salvator Rosa, El Greco, Francisco de Goya, Claude Lorrain, François Boucher, Simon Vouet, Antoine Watteau, Gustave Courbet, Théodore Rousseau, and Edgar Degas. In addition, there are sculpted works by the likes of Baccio Bandinelli, Alessandro Algardi, Alessandro Vittoria, François Girardon, Jean-Antoine Houdon, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Théodore-Charles Gruyère, François Joseph Bosio, and Adolf von Hildebrand.

Finally, the Musée Archéologique (Archaeological Museum) (Archaeological Museum) is located in the basement and was started in 1876 on behalf of the "Society for the Preservation of the Historical Monuments of Alsace" after the former archaeological collections of the city were entirely destroyed, along with the municipal library, in the Siege of Strasbourg. The collection was moved to the palace in 1889 and was finally opened to the public in 1896 and tells the story of Alsace from the Paleolithic Era to the Middle Ages. Including recent discoveries from excavations conducted in Strasbourg and other parts of Alsace and temporary exhibitions about findings after they happen, it is a lively museum that is constantly being updated with the latest research.

With so much to see under one, the Palais Rohan de Strasbourg and her museums really are a must for culture vultures who have found a holiday rental in Alsace and are planning on spending time in this very special city in France.


Palais Rohan
2, Place du Château
67076 Strasbourg, France
+33 (0)3 88 52 50 00
+33 (0)3 88 88 50 68


Musée des Beaux-Arts, Musée Archéologique, and Musée des Arts Décoratifs:
Open daily (except Tuesday), from 10am to 6pm.
Tickets: €4/€2 (reduced rate) & €5/€2.50 for temporary exhibitions.