Architecture, services, collections, information, museum trail...The Guerre et Paix en Ardennes Museum in a few figures and dates.
Reopening date: 23rd January 2018
The building
5,000 m2 of usable space
3,600 m2 of permanent exhibitions
300 m2 for temporary exhibitions
A wide range of services for visitors:
- A shop and bookshop
- A cafeteria
- A 50-seater conference and projection room
- A specialist documentation centre containing 5,000 works and 10,000 magazines
- An educational workshop for school groups
The collection
A collection of over 16,000 objects, divided into 6 major sections:
- Over 50 heavy vehicles from the two world wars
- 175 complete uniforms, 50 busts and over 250 hats
- Nearly 500 weapons: bladed weapons, firearms, crew-served weapons
- Objects from soldiers’ daily lives
- Objects from civilians’ daily lives
- A large iconographic and document collection
The chosen message
An identity: WAR and PEACE in the ARDENNES
- The story of the Ardennes and its role in History
- The story of 3 wars presented continuously, from 1852 to 1945
- A multi-faceted presentation of history, including the following dimensions: military, political and diplomatic, economic and technological, social and cultural
- A socially responsible approach: using the past to give meaning to the present
The future visitor circuit
- 5 spaces, 20 visit sequences
- A continuous chronological circuit around a large gallery display case, known as the “Time Gallery”, over 150 m long
- A number of themes are developed relating to the pre-war state of mind, the experience of fighting, the daily lives of soldiers and civilians, remembrance from one war to another
- A circuit specially designed for children, built into the adult circuit
- An immersion in the history of war, through backdrops, atmospheric displays, images, light and sound
- 35 audiovisual displays along the circuit, including 3 film shows
- Over 20 reconstructions of situations, many using the heavy equipment from the collection