Top 9 History Museums in Vendee, Pays de la Loire

Découverte ludique et interactive de l'art du vitrail à travers un parcours innovant, au cœur de l'église Saint-Hilaire de Mortagne-sur-Sèvre. Traversez les siècles et contemplez la pièce maîtresse du site, un vitrail de 10 mètres de haut,conçu pour la cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, qui reprend vie par le biais d'une projection spectaculaire !

Be transported in 7,000 years of the history of the Vendée! In the spectacular environment of La Boulogne which is an important place of memory and of history for the Vendée, an audacious architecture perfectly integrated into the landscape, with a museography as enjoyable as it is knowledgeable, awaits you ! From Prehistory to contemporary Vendee, discover history freely and become the actor of the time you cross. Just one in France => the children museum, where they play and learn in a place especially for them. If you want to have fun or to dream, come to live your own experience ...

A few steps away from the royal abbey, discover the authentic and bucolic miller’s house. The place offers you a virtual meeting with the baker, the washerwomen, the miller, his daughter and his cat. A modern and surprising museography reveals all the secrets of the Maison de la meunerie.

During the course of a partially guided visit, you will have the opportunity to discover the particular fate of the Vendee families ; forced to abandon their farmes, their houses and to organise, in the heart to the Grasla forest, survival camps in harsh, precarious and extreme conditions of the winter of 1794. Share their dramas, their joys, and their hopes through an interactive historical journey in the heart of the forest. The Association writed and staged a theatre production with professional actors and 30 volunteers actors.

The authentic bunker in the town centre opens its doors to a voyage through time. Come to discover the story of Les Sables d'Olonne from 1939 to 1945 with vivid and realistic scenes which will plunge you into the ambiance of the period. Constructed in 1943 and reamaining intact since 1945, it is now open to the public and you can visit 20 rooms inside.

The castle was built for Nicolas Rapin in the late sixteenth century. The facade decorated with terracotta muses from the eighteenth century and the porch, illustrate the influences of the Poitevin nobility in the sixteenth up to the eitghteenth century. The lobby, with its many art objects: miniature, keys, weapons, eighteenth clothing, pottery ... and a magnificent sedan chair of the eighteenth. Then the eighteenth furniture and paintings by few well known masters. The large living room is dominated by a fireplace designed by Philibert Delorme, the carved and gilded wooden pediment was realized for the first of Moliere's Bourgeois Gentilhomme before Louis XIV in Chambord. The small living room is decorated with beautiful oak woodwork Louis XVI garlands. The dining room is under the aegis of Francis I, with two doors from Chambord opening onto a huge fireplace. Georges Simenon lived here between 1941 and 1943 and received his friends Jean Tissier and painter Maurice de Vlaminck.