BONNAT-HELLEU MUSEUM

Since June 2016, the future of the Bonnat-Helleu Museum (closed since 2011) has been brought to light. Indeed, the project of the architectural firm Brochet Lajus Pueyo has been validated to lead the renovation and expansion of the museum. Work began in early 2018 for a planned reopening in 2025. Only the documentation and the drawing room will remain accessible to students and researchers. It will be a real metamorphosis, the environment of the building will be completely changed. A bold program open to the city with a new breakthrough in the composite facade located on rue Lafitte, a temporary exhibition room of 300 m² in the basement, an auditorium of 114 seats, a built addition adjacent to the Paul-Bert vocational school... The surface of the museum will double to occupy 5,000 m². Inaugurated in 1901, the Bayonne museum will maintain the scenography of its works (Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, El Greco, Delacroix, Dürer, Rubens, Ingres, Goya...) while offering a renewed tour of the permanent collections. In order to guarantee the link between the museum and the inhabitants, a café-boutique space will be created. The museum will be at the heart of a real urban strategy to enhance the attractiveness, the well-being and the influence of Petit-Bayonne, a district that is the foundation of the city's identity. The construction of the new elementary school of Petit-Bayonne, the proximity of the Koegui hotel with its restaurant and the pedestrianization of Bourgneuf street are solid assets to ensure this restructuring.