Information
The Diocesan Museum in Namur is dedicated to the religious heritage of the Namur diocese. The treasury of Namur Cathedral contains the core of the collection, consisting of medieval masterpieces. The collection includes sculptures, paintings, works in precious metals, textiles, manuscripts, and diverse cult objects.
The collection’s highlights include a thirteenth-century Holy Thorn Reliquary Crown, a Mosan Sedes sapientiae dating from around 1200, and a Madonna and Child, known as the Notre-Dame du Bon Succès, made of ivory and rosewood. This masterpiece, which once belonged to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, may come from a workshop in Malines.
The museum’s painting collection has copies of works by Flemish masters including Dieric Bouts, Michiel Coxcie, and Rubens. A copy of Anthony van Dyck’s Mystic Marriage of the Blessed Hermann Joseph (Vienna), from Floreffe Abbey near Namur, is especially noteworthy.
Hélène Cambier, Curator (February 2023)