Musée Vendée (ancien Musée des Guerres de Vendée)

The Musée Vendée, formerly known as the Musée des Guerres de Vendée, is located at the Logis de la Chabotterie, a 16th-century manor house in Saint-Sulpice-le-Verdon in the Vendée department of Pays de la Loire. The site holds exceptional historical significance: it was here, in January 1796, that the Royalist commander François-Athanase Charette de la Contrie — the last major leader of the Vendéen Royalist insurrection — was captured, effectively bringing the military phase of the Vendée Wars to an end. The Vendée Wars (1793–1796) were among the most brutal episodes of the French Revolutionary period. Following the levée en masse of 1793 — the Republic's mass conscription — the predominantly rural and Catholic Vendée rose in armed counter-revolution. The conflict, fought in the bocage countryside of western France, cost an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 lives on all sides. The Republican colonnes infernales commanded by General Turreau carried out systematic destruction of Vendéen villages and population in early 1794, an episode that remains one of the most contested and traumatic in French historical memory. The museum presents this history across permanent galleries occupying the restored logis buildings and outbuildings of the Chabotterie estate. The curatorial approach is notably balanced, presenting both the Republican and Royalist perspectives, the motivations of the Vendéen peasantry, and the international context of Revolutionary France at war with the European monarchies. Key exhibits include original weapons, uniforms, maps, personal effects of both Republican and Royalist commanders, broadsheets, and contemporary paintings of the conflict. An immersive audiovisual theatre reconstructs the bocage landscape and battle conditions. The restored 16th-century manor, its formal gardens, and a potager form part of the visitor experience, and a children's discovery trail runs through the estate grounds. The museum is a departmental institution managed by the Conseil Général de la Vendée and addresses sensitively the ongoing historiographical debate about whether Republican actions during the conflict constitute genocide.