Musée des Augustins, Toulouse

The Musée des Augustins is the fine arts museum of Toulouse, set in a former Augustinian convent at 21 rue de Metz, about 500 metres from Place du Capitole. It is known above all for Romanesque sculpture from the city's medieval churches, with paintings from Perugino to Toulouse-Lautrec upstairs. It reopened on 19 December 2025 after more than six years of renovation and suits visitors who like medieval art and quiet cloisters.

The friars began building the convent in 1309. When the order was suppressed during the Revolution, the empty buildings became a public museum, opened on 27 August 1795, one of the first in France outside Paris. The convent was classed as a historic monument in 1840. In the 19th century Viollet-le-Duc and the architect Darcy added Gothic Revival galleries and a monumental staircase.

The latest works closed the museum for several years. The Portuguese practice Aires Mateus designed a new reception building on rue de Metz, built partly to make the museum accessible. The reopening is phased. The Gothic rooms reopened on 3 October 2026, access to the colonnades is restricted while the great cloister is restored, and the church is due to reopen in autumn 2027.

Romanesque capitals from three Toulouse churches

The museum holds more than 4,000 paintings and sculptures from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. Its reputation rests on carved Romanesque capitals and reliefs saved from three Toulouse churches, Saint-Sernin, La Daurade and Saint-Étienne. The Gothic rooms include figures by the Master of Rieux, and further Gothic sculpture is shown in the church nave. The chapter house and the cloister garden are part of the convent route.

Upstairs the paintings run from Perugino, Rubens, Van Dyck and Murillo to Ingres, Delacroix, Manet and Toulouse-Lautrec. In about an hour the visit moves from medieval stone to 19th-century canvas.