The captions and explanations are short and clear

The episode is little known, Henri Plantagenet, husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine and father of Richard Lion heart and John Langland Kings, was born at le Mans in 1133. His father Geoffrey was buried in the Cathedral Saint-Julien. This was no more needed to the sarthois capital to be proclaimed "City Plantagenet", slight historical extrapolation to the attention of English tourists of passage. Also, the new Museum of archaeology and history of le Mans, opened this summer, was named "Square Plantagenet", reference to the famous line and the two square course designed by Bernard Althabegoïty. The architect rehabilitated the location by placing the former body of building of cubic extensions which each window forms a screen on the old Mans, medieval so well preserved that it serves occasional cinema settings ("Le Hussard sur le toit", "cyrano").

At the foot of the admirable Gallo-Roman wall, one of the few with Rome in such a State of conservation, and the Cathedral, the building is based on ancient remains. He was successively convent, hospice, many national then, during one hundred years, the printing of the Monnoyer family.

Trade intensity

The city, which already had a historical Museum (Museum of Tessé), chose this place to reveal important archaeological collections. Ten years and 21.5 million euros of investment have helped give birth to the Plantagenet square, an area of 3,300 square metres in 1,200 objects retracing the history of the city of the first human occupations to 1481 Charter granted by Louis XI to reward "the good city of le Mans" his loyalty to the Crown of France.

The Museum claims a small side purist. Its designers have preferred objects, the models in the former and the illustrations at the expense of multimedia equipment. The captions and explanations are short and clear. "A Museum, it is first of the collections, objects, insists Françoise Chaserant, curator of Museum of le Mans.". These collections have the particularity to be composed to 95 of found objects locally in le Mans and the Sarthe. "Hence the predominance of iron, mark centuries a lot of steel. So, some parts traveled extensively before burrow in the sarthois soil. The Museum focuses on their journey, such as this vase to Ephesus in Asia minor, before passing through Rome, Pisa, Arles, Lyon finally Vindunum, Roman name of le Mans. This is also the case of the shroud of saint Bertrand, fabric samit of silk from Persian and giving the measure of the intensity of market flows which per passed by the city, sarthoise.

The visitor pressed, scholar or little archaeological buff may simply a quick visit paved objects lighthouses, highlight in their showcase. For the Gallic period, it is a treasure of 85 Staters, coins minted before the Roman conquest, which retains the look. These parts were exhumed in 1997 in the District of les Sablons. A Venus Earth cooked, a rare figurine bearing the signature of a Gaulish artisan, Rextugenos, symbolizes the Gallo-Roman sequence. A horn to drink glass, object of prestige likely blown by a craftsman in the region of Trier in the 4th century, miraculously crossed the centuries to become one of the centrepieces of the new Museum.

Square Plantagenet can also boast one of the most important French sets of silver (32 pieces) buried in 1420 by fear of English incursions and rediscovered four centuries later, treasure of Coëffort. The footprint of the Plantaganets appears on an exceptional plate enamel representing Geoffroy and once placed over his tomb in the Cathedral. The visit ends with an alignment of six generations, four belong to the Beaumont family, Viscounts of Maine.

Concession to multimedia, this room is screen a short stage giving an overview of the turbulent saga of the Plantaganets.

Find the articles of the series on