Saint-Malo's strong nautical history, combined with contemporary and future challenges related to the sea, make the Musée Maritime, planned for 2028, the focal point of the corsair city's cultural and heritage offering. A project that is gathering pace, and whose next stages and future contours the city has unveiled.
The strategic choice of the former École Nationale Supérieure Maritime
The choice of location, within the city's ramparts, was made after careful analysis of the various criteria. Although the ENSM moved to the Paramé campus in Saint-Malo in 2023, it previously enjoyed a privileged location in the heart of the city's ramparts, in the heart of the tourist zone. The future Maritime Museum's high visitor numbers will be visually enhanced by the unobstructed views of the sea from these premises.
The origins of maritime schools date back to 1669, with the decision by Colbert, Louis XIV's Minister of the Navy, to create a Royal School of Hydrography. The ENSM took its current name in 1958, the year it moved into the seafront buildings of the Intra-Muros. Generations of students have learned the rudiments of navigation here, making this institution part of Malouin's nautical heritage. The remarkable architecture of the building, designed by Louis Arretche and Roger Hummel, gives the museum a unique identity. Erected as part of the post-war reconstruction, the granite building has been awarded the "Remarkable Architecture" label by the French Ministry of Culture.
Meeting the challenges of the sea
Once the location had been found, the City of Saint-Malo initiated technical studies for the building, which was to undergo extensive refurbishment in terms of accessibility and compliance with standards. The architectural and museographic design competition, launched in January 2024, shortlisted 4 candidates (Atelier Philippe Prost from the AAPP agency, Construire, KAAN Architecten, and Willmotte et Associés) in early April to conceive, design and build this future place of knowledge, linked to the world of boating. In November 2024, the City of Saint-Malo will announce the team of architects, scenographers and engineering consultants who will design and create the city's future place of history.
With its strong architectural, museographic and landscaping ambitions, the future museum will cover some 3,800 m2, of which more than 1,800 m2 will be dedicated to permanent exhibitions and 400 m2 to temporary exhibits.
With the growing impact of climate change, talk of the changes cultural establishments need to make in the area of sustainable development has become a reality. This issue is all the more relevant in Saint-Malo, where the challenges of climate change, the risk of marine submersion and contemporary issues related to the sea are particularly present and need to be addressed. The future Maritime Museum will therefore have to take these different parameters fully into account in its project, to make them a major focus of its development. The City of Saint-Malo's ambition is to obtain a building permit by the end of 2025, with an expected delivery date of 2028.
Construction of the Maritime Museum's storerooms
As a first key step towards preserving the works that make up Saint-Malo's collections, the City of Saint-Malo has laid the foundation stone for the reserves of the future Musée Maritime in 2023. Located on the ZAC des Fougerais, the new building, with a floor area of around 1,000 m2 and 658 m2 of conservation space, has been designed to meet current environmental challenges. Like the tip of the iceberg, the museum's storerooms will be an essential place for conservation, thanks to a controlled climate, and for preparing collections for future display, as well as a place of work for members of the museum team, restorers and visiting researchers. Construction has already begun, with delivery scheduled for December 2024.
A jewel of Malouin's nautical heritage to be preserved
With its rich history and remarkable nautical heritage, the future museum is based on the reunification of various municipal collections from the city's history museum, the Musée International du Long-Cours Cap-Hornier, and a major underwater archaeology repository, to form a new museum with a renewed identity. Today, the collections include some 13,000 nautical objects of various types and periods (from the 1st century BC to the 21st century), embodying the history of the town and its port, through the routes of explorers such as Jacques Cartier and Commander Charcot, and the fishermen and privateers who plied the seas from Newfoundland to Cape Horn.
An important part of the collections comes from the underwater excavations of the wreck graveyard at the Natière site in Saint-Malo. There are also a few curiosities, such as a Japanese mermaid brought back in July 1875 by a cap-horn captain and deposited in the museum. In the 19th century, exhibitions of mermaids made from the remains of various animals were all the more popular at fairs, as they were believed to have magical powers to protect against contagious diseases.
The museum will focus on key themes such as the great explorations, trade and racing, cod fishing, maritime industrialization and the rise of ocean-going trade, seaside tourism, water sports and contemporary environmental issues related to the sea, the story of the future museum is intended to reflect not only the identity and history of Saint-Malo, but also that of an entire region whose entire history is based on a close relationship with the ocean.
