Ernest Cognacq Museum

About

The Ernest Cognacq Museum is a municipal museum located in the heart of the city of Saint-Martin-de-Ré, a tourist town on the island of Ré in Charente-Maritime. The museum is housed in the Hotel de Clerjotte (a 15th century mansion classified as a historical monument in 1929). In 2006, a contemporary wing completes the whole, and in 2007, French-style gardens were built. The Ernest Cognacq Museum, labeled Musée de France, preserves the historical, military, artistic and oral heritages of the island of Ré. It is composed of a course on the past of the island of Re from the first settlements to the present day, a course on the bagne and thematic rooms dedicated to the fortifications of Vauban, the navy, ceramics and fine arts.

History: In 1906, Ernest Cognacq, the founder of the Paris department store La Samaritaine, bought the collections of a local scholar named Théodore Phelippot to offer them to his native commune of Saint-Martin-de-Ré. The first museum was created in 1907, installed at the time in the hotel des Cadets-Gentilshommes, a building which now contains the services of the town hall and La Poste, the collections are transferred to the...