The Musée du Désert is the largest and richest museum dedicated to Protestant history.
Located in the heart of a Cévennes hamlet, in the birthplace of Camisard leader Pierre Laporte, known as Rolland, the museum uses authentic documents (including almost 3,000 objects) to bring to life the Huguenot past and the history of the Camisards.
After a room devoted to the Reformation, other key periods are retraced:
- The “Desert” period (1685-1787), from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the Edict of Toleration.
- The Camisard War.
- Repression and resistance.
- Daily life in hiding.
- The long march towards freedom of conscience until the revolution.
Since 2019, the Museum has opened four new rooms on :
- The Reformation
- The Wars of Religion
- The Edict of Nantes
- The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
With these new rooms, the Museum, which until now has focused on the Desert period, is also able to understand the origins and evolution of Protestantism, from its birth with the Reformation in 1517 to the present day.
According to its promoters, the museum is also intended as a testimony to Protestant loyalty.
In some twenty rooms, the Musée du Désert presents :
- 18th-century Cévennes furniture and household objects.
- A recreation of a Cévennes wake.
- Weapons and maps from the Cévennes war.
- Hiding places for hunted men and forbidden books.
- Posters of royal power.
- Pulpits, cups from the Last Supper, birth and marriage certificates from the Désert...
- A remarkable collection of Bibles and psalters,
- An important collection of engravings and paintings (Protestant painters in Protestant history)...
The Musée du Désert celebrated its one hundred and tenth anniversary in 2021.
Since 2022, the Museum has been presenting an exhibition room (outside the chronological circuit) featuring a number of new items added to the collection. A way of (re)discovering the Musée du Désert and its evolution.
The Musée du Désert is, of course, seeking to expand its collections as a conservatory of Huguenot heritage, from the Reformation to the present day.
It welcomes all proposals for acquisitions and donations.
Musée du Désert
Le mas Soubeyran
30140 Mialet
Tel.: 04 66 85 02 72
www.museedudesert.com
Translated with DeepL.com
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