Museums - Musée de la Castre

Built on the ruins of a medieval château on the Suquet Promintory, the Musée de la Castre was formed around the collection of the Baron Lycklama a Nejeholt, a Dutch aristocrat and traveler, that was donated in 1877. This is one of the oldest French ethnographic museums. The group of Oceanic objects from the Marquesas, Cook, and Tahitian Islands were assembled by the French writer Edmond Ginoux de la Coche, who travelled though Polynesia as from 1843 till 1845 and again from 1848 till 1850. On his way back to Europe his visited Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru, where he acquired Pre-Colombian objects.  Above and beyond its rich archaeological, Medieval Mediterranean, and Asian antiquities collections, for the last thirty years the museum has had a policy of acquiring tribal art that has considerably enriched its Oceanic, Arctic, and Himalayas sections. Notably, it houses one of the most important French collections of Nepalese masks. A new approach to presentation combined with an increase in the number of objects on display drawn from its reserves will strengthen the ethnographic galleries after an anticipated remodelling.