Museums and theatres

The museums

musee-departemental-breton-quimper-photo-bernard-galeron

The Breton Museum

Created in 1846 in the former Palais des Évêques, it presents the archaeological history of Finistère but also focuses on the tradition of identity represented by Breton costume through a completely renewed presentation. The museum also traces the evolution of regional furniture and presents a retrospective of Quimper earthenware. Thematic exhibitions are also held every year.

musee-des-beaux-arts-quimper-family-visit-©Musée-des-beaux-arts-de-Quimper

The Museum of Fine Arts

Housed in an Italian-style palace, the museum has an important collection of European art as well as a rich collection of Breton painting. One room reconstructs the décor of the Hôtel de l'Épée by Jean-Julien LEMORDANT (also the painter of the ceiling of the Rennes Opera House). The Pont Aven school is also well represented, while a room is devoted to the poet and painter Max Jacob. Its collections rank it among the richest museums in Brittany and France.

Museum of earthenware

The Earthenware Museum

Quimper is fortunate to be one of the towns whose name is linked to an ancestral art: earthenware. With an exceptional collection covering more than 300 years (since 1690) of craft and industrial tradition, the Musée de la Faïence de Quimper invites you to take a journey through the world of Quimper ceramics in order to discover its historical, technical and artistic aspects.

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Baradoz

This Textile Art and Haute-Broderie exhibition space welcomes artists and textile craftsmen from all horizons, to discover, confront and open up to other techniques and other ways of working. It also offers visitors a panorama of Glazik and Glazig embroidery, between tradition and modernity, and embroidered outfits from previous collections of Haute-Broderie Pascal Jaouen.

quimper still museum

The Alembic Museum

Adjacent to the Distillerie du Plessis, the Alembic Museum is located on the site where the fortified castle of Guillaume du Plessis stood in the 12th century. Unique in Brittany, the museum brings together items from all over France, some of which are very rare. An opportunity to learn a lot about the craft, its history and all the stages of distillation.

Virtual tours

Breton Departmental Museum

Virtual visit of the Breton Departmental Museum in Quimper

Museum of Fine Arts

Virtual visit of the Museum of Fine Arts

Theatres

Quimper, City of Ar and History Théâtre de Cornouaille

The Cornouaille Theatre

From September 1996 to May 1998, the construction of the Théâtre de Cornouaille was the biggest project in Finistère. This 700-seat establishment designed by the architects Nicolas Michelin and Finn Geipel took over from the Théâtre Max Jacob. The architecture of the Théâtre de Cornouaille is a constant dialogue between past and present: alternating wood, concrete and steel, the materials combine warmth and modernity. Although resolutely contemporary, the theatre blends harmoniously into its immediate environment, the building has been clad with a crown of ipe, a Brazilian wood.

theatre-max-jacob-quimper

The Max Jacob Theatre

It was built between 1902 and 1904 by the architect Lafont. Following the bequest of an orchard to the town by Urbain Couchouren in 1893 to build a hospice, the town decided to build a theatre there. A trial and a settlement of accounts followed... This was the subject of Terrain Bouchaballe (novel and play by Max Jacob in 1923). In 1942, Gaston, Max's brother, was arrested in the theatre's garden (forbidden to Jews). He died in Auschwitz in 1943.
In 1997, the theatre was renamed "Théâtre Max Jacob".