Musée Saint-Raymond

Amazing place, especially for students since entry is free!

What a wonderful surprise. This museum is a little gem. It is beautifully laid out and everything is really well and very interestingly explained. It was a joy to explore it's exhibits. Congratulations to it's curators. Easy to miss unless you know where to find it but worth hunting - lots, and lots of Roman and early Gallic artefacts and very well curated so that you get a sense of the early history of Toulouse. Worth a visit for sure (and only 5 Euro for an adult)

Very nice museum. There is the permanent collection of some very nice Roman and bronze age artifacts. The special exhibit was clever but you must choose based on content.

Always extremely interesting. The MSR is an interesting museum of Roman antiques

You will discover this small, seemingly unimposing museum, right beside the Basilica of St Sernin. We dithered about whether or not to bother venturing in but were we glad that we did...!! The museum is home of some of the most important and extensive Roman archaeological discoveries in Europe. Almost all of the artefacts displayed came from digs that took place in and around Chiragan, near Toulouse. The Roman villa of Chiragan, in the town of Martres-Tolosane , south-west of Toulouse, was built in the 1st century AD and was lived in until the fall of the Roman Empire. The villa is the most important Roman villa discovered in Europe, after Villa Hadriana. Amazingly, the complex covered 32 acres (130,000 sq m) over three terraces. Excavations over the centuries, as far back as the 17th century, produced a vast number of rich marble sculptures. The vast number of sculptures that were discovered now grace the Saint-Raymond Museum and, apart from those in the Louvre in Paris, it is the most important collection of busts of Roman emperors in France. Start at the top, on the 2nd floor, where there are lots of interesting exhibits on the Romans developments in Toulouse. When you're done there, you move down to the 1st floor and this is where the main sculptures are displayed. As you enter the floor, the first area you come upon is the Galarie des Portraits... it is simply stunning. The area unfolds with sculpture after sculpture - all amazing. There is a wonderful "family tree" of Rome's first Emperor, Augustus, which contains busts of himself and his family. Another display incorporates a series of reliefs depicting the Labour's of Hercules. The basement contains interesting funeral-related artefacts... sarcophagi, etc. as well as some very old street and building foundations found on the site. This museum is not to be missed !!