Musée du cloître de Notre-Dame-en-Vaux, Medieval art museum in Châlons-en-Champagne, France.
The Musée du cloître de Notre-Dame-en-Vaux is an art museum in Châlons-en-Champagne that holds about 55 column statues and medieval sculptures. These works come from excavations of the original cloister and show different phases of medieval sculpture.
The museum came about through excavations between 1969 and 1976, when archaeologists rediscovered much of the original cloister. That cloister had been destroyed in 1759, but most of its sculptures were recovered from underground.
The collection shows how sculpture changed from Romanesque to Gothic styles. You can see this shift in the stone figures that once decorated the original cloister.
The museum is located in town and easy to reach on foot, though parking can be tight. Plan to spend about an hour or two to see the collection without rushing.
The museum owns a painted wooden Pieta from the 16th century that shows exceptional craftwork. Such painted wooden pieces rarely survive, making this work particularly special.
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