2015 – Les Saintes Maries de Moulins
The Holy Mary’s of Moulins
4 centuries of the the Visitation in Moulins
02 may – 24 december 2015
Curators : Gérard Picaud, administrateur et Jean Foisselon, administrateur adjoint des collections du Musée de la Visitation
In 2015, the Museum of the Visitation will commemorate the 400th year of presence of the order of the Visitation in Moulins. The exhibition Les Saintes Marie de Moulins will present the daily lives of these women who chose to live freely in the cloisters of the rue de Paris. Many unpublished archival documents will show the layout of the monastery and its enclosure, now extinct, replaced by the Banville’s college . Visitors can also admire the stunning works of art offered by religious families. Some still have descendants in Bourbonnais, others have made history as the Montmorency, Ventadour or Fouquet.
Dispersed during the Revolution, the community moved to Nevers. From generation to generation, the Visitation thrived in new buildings. In 1876, other Visitandines returned to Moulins led by a princess of Bourbon- Braganza. The area where they settled, undeveloped but strategic near sources of Bardon has now changed. Women who have inhabited these two monasteries have survived the war and the vagaries of history that many moving objects testify to. Through the centuries, they preserved the precious memories of their predecessors, and they also created new works of art presented to the public for the first time.
THE VISITATION MONASTERY IN MOULINS IS DISTINGUISHED HISTORICALLY AS THE MONASTERY WHERE THE FOUNDRESS OF THE VISITATION ORDER, ST. JANE DE CHANTAL, DIED.