Musée Saint-Raymond — Attraction in Toulouse

You will discover this small, seemingly unimposing museum, right beside the Basilica of St Sernin. We dithered about whether or not to bother venturing in but were we glad that we did...!! The museum is home of some of the most important and extensive Roman archaeological discoveries in Europe. Almost all of the artefacts displayed came from digs that took place in and around Chiragan, near Toulouse. The Roman villa of Chiragan, in the town of Martres-Tolosane , south-west of Toulouse, was built in the 1st century AD and was lived in until the fall of the Roman Empire. The villa is the most important Roman villa discovered in Europe, after Villa Hadriana. Amazingly, the complex covered 32 acres (130,000 sq m) over three terraces. Excavations over the centuries, as far back as the 17th century, produced a vast number of rich marble sculptures. The vast number of sculptures that were discovered now grace the Saint-Raymond Museum and, apart from those in the Louvre in Paris, it is the most important collection of busts of Roman emperors in France. Start at the top, on the 2nd floor, where there are lots of interesting exhibits on the Romans developments in Toulouse. When you're done there, you move down to the 1st floor and this is where the main sculptures are displayed. As you enter the floor, the first area you come upon is the Galarie des Portraits... it is simply stunning. The area unfolds with sculpture after sculpture - all amazing. There is a wonderful "family tree" of Rome's first Emperor, Augustus, which contains busts of himself and his family. Another display incorporates a series of reliefs depicting the Labour's of Hercules. The basement contains interesting funeral-related artefacts... sarcophagi, etc. as well as some very old street and building foundations found on the site. This museum is not to...

Given the 5 eur entrance fee I wasn't expecting much but was amazed by the displays. Not so much the Roman era busts, coins and mosaics, or pre Roman artefacts which were vaguely interesting to myself (although the very fun set of reliefs of the Labours of Hercules was a great reminder of those epic legends and a highlight), and much more by teh temporary exhibition on the 1st floor with outstanding displays of Egyptian sarcophagi, an incredibly well preserved mummy and other ancient Egyptian as well as European medieval artefacts. I happily spent over an hour here taking it all in.

According to the signage, only 3% of their collection is on display at any one time, which boggles the mind - if the other objects are of the same quality and all went on display, they could open mini Louvre!

Worth every cent of those 5...

A nice museum, well laid out and presenting exhibits from pre Roman time to the medieval centuries. Many of the items are helpfully interpreted in English (thank you). On a personal note, I did find the exhibiting of a partially unwrapped Egyptian mummified person disturbing, as I think did some others. I believe that public sensibilities have changed since since the initial removal of the mummy from it's original resting place. The remoteness of their death should not allow us to forget that this was a human being, who's remains deserve more respect than being put in a glass case for people to stare at. Hopefully this will be something the team will review (as indeed Manchester...