Paray-le-Monial and the Musée du Hiéron

An important conservated historical site to discover, Paray-le-Monial has several architectural treasures: the Hôtel de Ville, inspired by the Italian Renaissance, the Basilica Notre-Dame (11th-12th c.) and a Roman center, which forms, with its Classic (18th c.) cloisters, an important Cluniac monastic site.

Among this remarkable group, a place stands out, singular to inhabited architecture: the Hiéron (“sacred” in ancient Greek), a municipal museum designated as a Musée de France and protected in its title as a historical monument. From the Roman portal of Anzy-le-Duc (12th c.) to its group of Italian paintings (17th and 18th centuries) and then to about thirty artists from the 20th and 21st centuries, the museum also has the exceptional “Via Vitae”, designated a national treasure and created in 1904 by goldsmith Joseph Chaumet, the jeweler of anyone who was anyone in Paris.

Over the last decade, in this exceptional setting, Musée en Musique has offered programs related to the Baroque repertoire, very strict in their musical content, which dialogue with the old collections.

In the museum’s environment, through a mysterious alchemy, the music acquires other resonances, the collections come alive; new perspectives open up, thanks to this conjunction of sounds and objects of art.

The Hiéron museum has become a popular place to record early music and take advantage of the beautiful acoustics provided by the metallic structure.