Place Saint-Eloi, in Angers city centre, is where you will find the Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1801 and based in a very beautiful mansion from the end of the 15th century, the Barrault lodge, a listed Historic Monument. The museum is attached to the Toussaint Complex, a group including the David d'Angers Gallery, the Municipal Library and the Fine Arts Garden. Reopened in 2004 after several years of renovation and extension work, the museum now offers 3,000 m² of exhibition space.
In this flagship of Renaissance civil architecture, you can find an exhibition area in the vaulted ground floor room known as the current exhibits gallery (galerie d'actualités), designed to house the permanent collections. Two themed tours have been set up to help visitors discover the treasures of the museum: the "Fine Arts" tour, which includes 350 paintings and sculptures from the 14th century to the present day, and the "History of Angers" tour, which offers 550 archaeology and art objects from the Neolithic to the present day.
A temporary exhibition hall as well as a graphic arts room regularly showcase contemporary artists and heritage exhibitions.
