Museum of Art and History

Fribourg, Switzerland

Musée d'Art et d'Histoire is a museum of art and history is housed in Fribourg's only Renaissance building, The Ratzé Palace. The collections housed here include paintings and statues from the 12th to 19th centuries as well as historical remains that depict political, religious, and business aspects of life in Fribourg during that period. There is also a former slaughterhouse that now contains paintings and stone statues from the 19th and 20th centuries. In the garden is the piece of art La Lune by Niki de Saint Phalle as well as four other works.

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Details

Founded: 1774
Category: Museums in Switzerland

More Information

www.fr.ch

Rating

4.5/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

LionHeart867 (12 months ago)
A captivating collection of historical 'gems' in which you can emerse yourself.
Łukasz Warzecha (2 years ago)
I'd give it five stars - it's a very decent and interesting museum of local art and history with a great collection of gothic sculpture, perhaps not always first grade but still remarkable. But what annoyed me immensely is the way many gothic sculptures were spoiled and disfigured by some kind of "modern art" action probably carried out quite long ago (there are stickers mentioning the year 2010, if I remember well). There are some ribbons wrapped around the figures, and also some plastic "hands" stuck in them. This is unacceptable, straightforward ugly, and should be immediately removed, also for conservation reasons. Have some respect for real art. Apart from that, the museum is worth visiting for its historic exhibition, a really impressive display of stained-glass windows dating back even to the 15th century, and also for its second part with a great display of stone sculptures, archeologic artefacts and above all great exhibition of Adèle d'Afry's sculptures. If you like visiting meticulously, reserve at least three hours. There is one more important shortcoming, however: there are detailed descriptions but only in German and French, no English. My French is good enough to understand most of the text nevertheless you should definitely add English which is the most universal.
Rromir Imami (Culture/Heritage Pilgrim) (2 years ago)
Needless to mention the importance of this culture and heritage institution! It is one of the "must see places" in Fribourg. And reserve at least 2 hours only to glance through the different collections. I highly recommend it!
weiq (3 years ago)
The museum is split into 2 parts, with the first consisting of mainly religious sculptures and paintings (4 floors), and the second consisting of historical pieces and artefacts (3 floors). It is quite nicely laid out, and there is a map of the museum to guide you along. I found that information on the objects and each room itself was lacking. For people who don’t speak French or German, note that there are no English translations available. Overall a decent museum if you enjoy religious works and exploring the history of the area, but that didn’t interest me too much. I spent slightly more than an hour there.
Hugh Osborn (3 years ago)
So much potential here being wasted. There are many interesting historical objects capable of building a detailed picture of the history of Fribourg... but the context of the collection is completely lacking. Information is all object-specific with many paragraphs of long-winded prose for each painting, sculpture, etc (French/German only). But nothing ties the pieces together. Unfortunately 15 minutes spent on the Fribourg Wikipedia page would provide a far more coherent idea of the cities past than any number of hours in this museum.
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