In the former priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, ingenious machines and scientific instruments occupy a historic religious complex. The museum grew from a Revolutionary-era mission to gather useful inventions, turning technical objects into tools for public learning.
Quick facts
The Conservatoire des arts et métiers was created by law on 10 October 1794 after Abbé Henri Grégoire proposed a public collection of useful inventions and machines.
The Conservatoire moved into the former priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs in 1798, and its galleries opened as a museum in 1802.
The museum preserves Joseph Cugnot’s 1770–71 steam-powered fardier, which entered the Conservatoire collection in 1799.
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The Musée des Arts et Métiers offers a striking sight: inventions and industrial machines inside the former church of Saint-Martin-des-Champs. The church’s medieval stonework and vaulted spaces were built for a monastic community; today, they hold objects that show how people measured, calculated, built, communicated and travelled. The museum is not simply a collection of old machines.
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