Musée lapidaire d'Avignon

The Musée lapidaire d'Avignon is a lapidarium-museum in Avignon, France, dedicated to archaeological collections spanning prehistory through early Christianity. Functioning as an annex of the Musée Calvet, it has housed the classical Greek, Etruscan, Roman, and Gallo-Roman sculptures and objects of the Calvet Museum since the 1980s. Both institutions are operated by the Fondation Calvet. Beyond its permanent galleries, the museum hosts temporary summer exhibitions, scholarly conferences, and networking events.

The museum's building was originally constructed as the chapel of the city's Jesuit College. Plans for the church were initially drawn by Étienne Martelange in 1616. From 1620 onward, the project was entrusted to architect François de Royers de la Valfenière, who raised the walls up to the nave's main cornice. The structure was later repurposed to house the archaeological collections of the Calvet Museum. On June 21, 1928, the former chapel was officially classified as a monument historique.

The permanent collections encompass a broad chronological and geographical range, covering prehistory, Greek antiquity, Etruscan antiquity, Roman antiquity, Gallic art, and paleo-Christian art. The holdings are varied in medium and function, comprising vases, lamps, bas-reliefs, statues, and Etruscan funerary monuments.

The prehistoric collection is anchored by the Lauris-Puyvert Stela, carved from ologenic limestone. Greek antiquities include an acéphale Apollo Sauroctonus from the 1st century AD, a headless woman draped in a chlamys and chiton from the 2nd century BC, and a statue of Athena wearing a peplos, the skin of the goat Amalthea, a Gorgoneion, and a plumed Corinthian helmet decorated with rams' heads. Greek funerary stelae are particularly well-represented, such as an Attic marble stela from 399-375 BC depicting a young woman in a tunic and mantle between Doric columns as a female slave presents a duck, and the 4th-century BC Stela of Glykon and his son Tateis, which features a double register showing Hecate in her triple form with Demeter and Men, alongside busts of a woman and boy. Roman sculptures feature a veiled woman holding a patera, a headless woman with a dolphin, a two-headed Hermes, and marble funerary urns inscribed for C. Silius Herma and Marcus Domitius Urbicus. Greek vases include an Apulian red-figure volute krater from circa 330-320 BC, decorated with female head mascarons on the handles and depicting a young rider facing a couple within a naiskos.

The museum is located at 27 rue de la République in Avignon, occupying a 17th-century building that originally served as the Jesuit College chapel. The architectural evolution of the space began under Étienne Martelange in 1616 and continued under François de Royers de la Valfenière starting in 1620, with the latter responsible for constructing the walls up to the main cornice of the nave. Its historical and architectural significance was recognized by its classification as a monument historique in 1928.

The Musée lapidaire d'Avignon is located at 27 rue de la République in Avignon, France. It is owned and managed by the Fondation Calvet, a public institution that also oversees the Musée Calvet, its library and medal collection, the Musée du Petit Palais, the Muséum Requien, and several other regional museums. In addition to its permanent archaeological displays, the museum presents temporary summer exhibitions, such as those exploring the diffusion of Egyptian and Alexandrian cults in the Roman world, and conferences, including educational programming for school audiences.