Le Musée de la Marine in Brest, Finistere, France | Harbour | Museum | National Landmark | Naval Museum | Castle | Museum Services

Le Musée de la Marine, Brest, Bretagne, France

Situated inside a medieval chateau is this superb collection of model ships, paintings and sculptures. Originally part of the Naval Museum of Paris, this collection was first established in 1748, making it the oldest naval museum in the world. The exhibition of naval ship models is unrivaled and illustrates the history of Richelieus arsenal and the French fleet at the height of its glory.

The Musée de la Marine de Brest is one of the decentralized institutions of the Musée de la Marine de Paris (Palais de Chaillot). Installed in 1827 at the Louvre around a collection formed in 1748, the Navy Museum and the Museum of St. Petersburg founded by Peter the Great are the oldest maritime museums in the world.

The collection of model ships of the Museum of the Marine is unparalleled. Referring to the art of royal arsenals of carpenters, the collection gathered in Brest recalls the history of the arsenal of Richelieu and large fleets of high seas at the height of the sail.

It was at Brest that de Grasse's fleet whose victory over the English fleet in the Chesapeake on 30 August 1781 allowed the victory of Yorktown on 19 October and the independence of America. On 1 August 1785, the Compass and the Astrolabe of Lapérouse left for a trip around the world that they would never return from. Much of the naval history of France here all his memory and its potential emotion.