Sights in Troyes
- Sort by:
- Popular
-
A
16th-Century Troyes
Half-timbered houses – some with lurching walls and floors that aren't quite on-the-level – line many streets in the old city, rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1524. The best place for aimless ambling is the area bounded by (clockwise from the north) rue Général de Gaulle, the Hôtel de Ville, rue Général Saussier and rue de la Pierre; of special interest are (from southwest to northeast) rue de Vauluisant, rue de la Trinité, rue Champeaux and rue Paillot de Montabert.
Off rue Champeaux (between No 30 and 32), a stroll along tiny ruelle des Chats (Alley of the Cats), as dark and narrow as it was four centuries ago – the upper floors almost touch – is like stepp…
reviewed
-
B
Cathédrale St-Pierre et St-Paul
Troyes' most important house of worship, 114m long, incorporates elements from every period of champenois Gothic architecture. The Flamboyant west facade, for instance, dates from the mid-1500s, while the choir and transepts are more than 250 years older. The interior is illuminated by a spectacular series of some 180 stained-glass windows (13th to 17th centuries) that shine like jewels when it's sunny. Also of interest: a fantastical baroque organ (1730s) sporting musical putti (cherubs), and a tiny treasury with enamels from the Meuse Valley. Back in 1429, Joan of Arc and Charles VII stopped off here on their way to his coronation in Reims.
reviewed
-
C
Hôtel de Vauluisant
This haunted-looking, Renaissance-style mansion houses two unique museums. Plants used to make dyes and oil paints in the Middle Ages grow in the courtyard.
Musée de l'Art Troyen Redesigned in 2009, the Museum of Troyes Art features the evocative paintings, stained glass and statuary (stone and wood) of the Troyes School, which flourished here during the economic prosperity and artistic ferment of the early 16th century.
Musée de la Bonneterie The Hosiery Museum showcases the sock-strewn story of Troyes' 19th-century knitting industry.
reviewed
-
D
Église Ste-Madeleine
Troyes' oldest and most interesting neighbourhood church has an early-Gothic nave and transept (early 13th century) and a Renaissance-style choir and tower. The highlights here are the splendid Flamboyant Gothic rood screen (early 1500s), dividing the transept from the choir, and the 16th-century stained glass in the presbytery portraying scenes from Genesis. In the nave, the statue of a deadly serious Ste-Marthe (St Martha), around the pillar from the wooden pulpit, is considered a masterpiece of the 15th-century Troyes School.
reviewed
-
E
Musée d'Art Moderne
The highlights here are French painting (including lots of fauvist works) created between 1850 and 1950, glass (especially the work of local glassmaker and painter Maurice Marinot) and ceramics. Featured artists include Derain, Dufy, Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso and Soutine. Housed in a 16th- to 18th-century bishop's palace, this place owes its existence to all those crocodile-logo shirts, whose global success allowed Lacoste entrepreneurs Pierre and Denise Lévy to amass this outstanding collection.
reviewed
-
F
Maison de l'Outil et de la Pensée Ouvrière
Worn to a sensuous lustre by generations of skilled hands, the 10,000 hand tools on display here – each designed to perform a single, specialised task with exquisite efficiency – bring to life a world of manual skills made obsolete by the Industrial Revolution. The collection is housed in the magnificent Renaissance-style Hôtel de Mauroy, built in 1556. Videos show how the tools were used and what they were used for. A catalogue in English is available at the reception.
reviewed
-
G
Église St-Pantaléon
Looking pretty much like it did three centuries years ago, this Renaissance-style church, with its vaulted wood ceiling, is a great place to see the work of the 16th-century Troyes School – check out the sculptures attached to the columns of the nave. The west facade was added in the 18th century. As in many churches, history sheets are available in French, English and German.
reviewed
-
H
Basilique St-Urbain
Begun in 1262 by the Troyes-born Pope Urban IV, whose father's shoemaker shop once stood on this spot, this church is exuberantly Gothic both inside and out, and has some fine 13th-century stained glass. In the chapel off the south transept arm is La Vierge au Raisin (Virgin with Grapes), a graceful, early-15th-century stone statue of Mary and the Christ Child.
reviewed
-
I
Musée St-Loup
Musée St-Loup, across the street from the cathedral, has a wide-ranging and sometimes surprising collection of medieval sculpture, enamel, archaeology and natural history. The stuffed mammals and birds at the entrance give the completely wrong impression!
reviewed
-
J
Musée Di Marco
The dramatic, action-packed drawings of Angelo Di Marco are featured at the new Musée Di Marco . Highlights include spellbindingly sensationalist renderings of the attempted assassination of Charles de Gaulle and the assassination of John F Kennedy.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
K
Apothicairerie de l'Hôtel-Dieu-le-Comte
If you come down with an old-fashioned malady – scurvy, perhaps, or unbalanced humours – the place to go is this fully outfitted, wood-panelled pharmacy from 1721.
reviewed
-
L
Hôtel de Chaudron
One of the founders of the Canadian city of Montréal, Paul Chomeday de Maisonneuve (1612–76), once lived in the Hôtel de Chaudron.
reviewed
