Devoted to the arts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Strasbourg and its region, the museum is housed in the buildings of the Fondation de l’Oeuvre Notre-Dame, which has been in charge of the cathedral construction site for eight centuries. Numerous original sculptures, deposited to protect them from pollution and bad weather, are exhibited in a vast room called the “Jubé room”.
Among these sculptures are the Church and the Synagogue, masterpieces of Gothic sculpture. Allegories of the Old and New Law, or of the Catholic Church and biblical Israel.These two statues are models of their kind in terms of their quality and the symbolism they carry. The ANU Jewish People's Museum in Tel Aviv as well as The Met Cloisters in New York also present replicas.
The museum also preserves 13th century stained glass windows depicting scenes from the Old Testament, with representations of Jews recognizable by their pointy hats .
We will also find a set of fragments of Jewish funerary steles, preserved in the Court of the Maréchaux. They come from the Jewish cemetery of the medieval town, which was located outside the ramparts, beyond the Jewish Gate, on the site of the current Place de la République. These steles all predate the persecution of February 14, 1349. This day marks the expulsion of the Jews from Strasbourg, held responsible for the Black Death which decimated the region. After this date, the cemetery steles were scattered, broken, and sometimes reused as construction material.
Go through the museum door to discover its collections!
3 photos @musées of Strasbourg
2 photos Rood screen and statues Church and Synagogue @Francoise Elkouby
