Historical Museum: reviews and practical tips

Visiting the Historical Museum in Strasbourg

Along the banks of the Ill, a river winding through the region, sits the Historical Museum of Strasbourg. It is housed within the Ancienne Grande Boucherie (Old Great Butcher Shop), a building now recognized as a historic monument. Its mission is to trace the political, economic, and social evolution of the city.

History

In 1919, Hans Haug, then director of the Fine Arts Museum and the Decorative Arts Museum, initiated a major cultural expansion for the city. The decorative arts collection previously held in the Grande Boucherie was moved to the Rohan Palace, and replaced with an exhibit on the military origins of Strasbourg. This collection formed the foundation for the Historical Museum established in 1920.

By the 1970s, as admitted by the museum curator Jean-Pierre Klein, the institution felt like an overcrowded antique shop. It contained weapons, furniture, and valuable paintings alongside mundane objects and personal historical memorabilia. Without a clear structure, it lacked the focus of a national museum.

Following renovations, a modern exhibition design was implemented in 2003, providing a chronological tour from the Middle Ages to the present day.

The Historical Museum of Strasbourg

The collections are spread over two floors. The most impressive piece is the city model, known as the plan-relief. It measures 12 meters by 6 meters and provides a 1/600 scale view of Strasbourg as it appeared in 1727.

Across 1,700 square meters of exhibition space, visitors explore the city as it existed under the Holy Roman Empire. The tour continues into the 17th century and the shifts that occurred as these lands became part of France. The final leg of the journey takes you from the era of Napoleon through the two World Wars and into the establishment of the modern European institutions.

It is a dense look at Alsatian history, which feels remarkably tangible here.