Écomusee de Marquèze

A unique ecomuseum in France

The Ecomusée de Marquèze was created in 1969 by the Landes de Gascogne Regional Natural Park. It is one of the first ecomuseums in France. Its mission is to conserve, study and transmit the heritage of the Grande Lande, reconstituting the living environment of its inhabitants in the 19th century.

150 years ago, this original shepherd-farmer society was in such symbiosis with its environment that it disappeared when the moor gave way to the forest. Marquèze tells the story of this unique link between a society and its environment, its economic, cultural or social consequences in one of the largest open-air museums in France.

A preserved and restored heritage site

To reconstitute this living environment, Marquèze was the first ecomuseum in France to use the technique of moving buildings. Two thirds of the surrounding neighborhoods were moved, the landscapes, fields, resinous forest, and even the mill area, were reconstituted to restore the neighborhood as it was, on a par with the others. , In the nineteen century.

The páramo sheep race, the cultivation of ancient cereals, the gardens, the collections that decorate the houses, complete this staging of a society at the dawn of its metamorphosis.

The eco-museum train

4 km separate the district of Marquèze from the village of Sabers, like the other districts of the Grande Lande, the district of Marquèze is isolated. From 1889 to the 1960s, the Sabers-Labouheyre line was operated to transport passengers and goods, the neighborhood opened. Today, the resin train is the only access route to the Marquèze neighborhood, its carriages dating from 1903 to 1910 are classified as a Historical Monument.

A place of conservation, exhibitions and conferences

Built in 2008, the Paviilon of the Marquèze ecomuseum is located opposite the old Sabers station, the ticket office of the ecomuseum. It is a space dedicated to exhibitions and the conservation of the 30,000 objects that make up the ecomuseum collections. The exhibitions presented in the Pavilion complete, illustrate and expand on the theme presented in the Marquèze district.

The permanent exhibition traces the history of spatial planning in the Landes de Gascogne from the 19th century to the present day. Several rooms allow you to understand the key stages of a royal conquest. Formerly a desert traversed by a few shepherd-farmers, it is the largest industrial forest in Europe that was systematically planted since 1857. It shapes the landscapes we know today and has profoundly transformed local society.

Every year, a temporary exhibition puts the territory in contact with the issues that cross contemporary society. geography, culture, art, archeology, ethnography, fascinating subjects that open horizons.