The Desert Museum, is the largest and richest museum of Protestant history.
Located in the heart of a Cévennes hamlet, in the birthplace of the Camisard chief Pierre Laporte, known as Rolland, this museum endeavours to bring to life, thanks to authentic documents (nearly 2,000 objects in particular), the Huguenot past and the history of the Camisards.
Thus, after a room devoted to the Reformation, other important periods are retraced:
- The "Desert" period (1685-1787) from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the Edict of Tolerance.
- The War of the Camisards.
- Repression and resistance.
- Daily life in clandestinity.
- 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, this Museum also wants to be a testimony of Protestant loyalty.
Through its fifteen rooms, the Musée du Désert presents in particular:
- Cevennes furniture and familiar objects from the 18th century.
- The reconstitution of a Cevennes vigil.
- Weapons and maps of the Cévennes war.
- The hiding places of hunted men and forbidden books.
- Posters of the royal power.
- Chairs, cups of the Holy Communion, birth and marriage certificates in the Desert...
- A remarkable collection of Bibles and psalters,
- An important collection of engravings and paintings (Protestant painters of Protestant history) .
The Desert Museum celebrated its one hundred and tenth anniversary in 2021.
Desert Museum
The Soubeyran farmhouse
30140 Mialet
Tel: 04 66 85 02 72
www.museedudesert.com
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