Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame

The Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame stands at 3 Place du Château, opposite the cathedral on Strasbourg's Grande Île, in the Grand Est region of France. It was founded in 1931 by the city to house the collections of the Fondation de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame, the body responsible for the building and maintenance of the cathedral since the Middle Ages. The museum occupies a group of medieval and Renaissance buildings, including the 14th-century Hôpital des Bourgeois site and the Maison de l'Œuvre, with stairs, courtyards and wooden galleries that form a historic setting. The collection holds original sculpture removed from the cathedral for conservation, including statues from the façade and portals, among them the Church and Synagogue figures and the Wise and Foolish Virgins, together with architectural drawings, among them the plans of the west front dated to the late 13th century, and stained glass from the 11th to 14th centuries, among the oldest in France, including the head of Christ from Wissembourg. The painting and sculpture of the Upper Rhine from the Gothic to the Renaissance is also represented, with works by Hans Baldung Grien, Nicolas de Haguenau and Sebald Beham's contemporaries. The museum follows a chronological path from the Romanesque to the Renaissance and gives a close view of works that are otherwise out of reach on the cathedral itself. Its rooms are arranged to explain the techniques of stone carving, glass painting and goldsmith work practised in the cathedral workshops. The buildings have been restored and adapted for visitors. The museum is closed on Tuesday and open other days from about 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, with an admission of about €7.50. The close link to the cathedral makes it the logical first stop for visitors who want to understand how the building was made, restored and renewed over nearly a thousand years.