The Anatomy Museum (or horrors) of Montpellier

The guided tour of the Faculty of Medicine that takes you to the heart of the famous Museum of Anatomy in Montpellier!

The appointment was given at 10:30 a.m. on December 20th. I had planned this visit simply because she appeared to me out of the ordinary. This morning confirmed my intuition. The appointment, therefore, was on Place de la Comédie, in the heart of Montpellier , before the Tourist Office. It is also only with the latter that it is possible to book your guided tour, which shows complete every day the visit takes place. You will see that there is nothing surprising to this.

The simple warning that the visit is not recommended Sensitive souls , and is not accessible to pregnant women, children under 12 years of age and people allergic to the formol, is perhaps the most successful advertising for this true "holy of medicine". If many curious people come especially to see the horrors (or wonders, it is according to) exhibited in the showcases, the visit is also worth a visit for what precedes the nail of the show of this morning walk.

Indeed, we also come to explore the Faculty of Medicine , the oldest medical school in the Western world that has never stopped working.

History and anecdotes around the Faculty of Medicine

From the start of the guided tour, in which you will be part of a group of about 20 people, your guide will tell you the history of the Faculty of Medicine, with crispy anecdotes on the key characters as well as the city of Montpellier, to keep your attention awake. It must be said that this is very good: you will walk through the Ecusson (the historic centre) to the impressive parvis of the St. Peter’s Cathedral, which joins the Faculty.

The Faculty of Medicine has made the world famous in Montpellier. Founded in the 12th century, it is the oldest in the still active world (the one from Salerno who disappeared in the early 19th century). She was considered the best place in Europe to study medicine for centuries and her students came mainly from other regions of France and Europe. Among them were the writer François Rabelais , but also Nostradamus , Lapeyronie , Chaptal, Arnaud de Villeneuve, Gui de Chauliac, which marked its history.

A small detour to the Jardin des Plantes before entering the building

About a hundred meters from the main entrance of the faculty is the Jardin des Plants de Montpellier, which is the oldest botanical garden in France. If you didn’t walk, your guide will take you to this garden and tell you about other anecdotes. Its pedagogical value is recognized, it is frequented by botanists, doctors and pharmacists, school students and students, but also by lovers of flora, tourists and many lovers of nature and plants. Today, this garden has a triple vocation: botanical, historical and academic.

La salle des Actes et la salle du conseil

Patience, patience. The hatches and other wax mouldings will wait a bit. This part of the visit is very interesting. After having passed the statues of Lapeyronie and Barthez that adorn the entrance of the faculty since 1864, you will enter the hall, and on your right, you will enter the old private chapel of the bishops, which was transformed into the hall. Salle des Actes .

It is decorated with many portraits of former scholars and professors, as well as a bust of Hippocrates, offered by Emperor Napoleon 1st. This is where medical students come to support their thesis before the jury. During each medical thesis, the famous oath of Hippocrates is ready.

Here is a documentary on the Acts Hall of the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier, produced, alongside other reports, on the occasion of the mini-series Antigon 34 , which refers to a district of Montpellier, where the action takes place mainly.

Teachers' dressing room and counseling room Before you enter the board room, which is decorated with portraits of scholars of the 18th century, you will be in the dressing room of Professors, which is also decorated with portraits of former students of the Faculty of the 16th and 17th century. The teachers' toges are placed in lockers.

The Anatomy of a Museum

We're there. The moment of the visit that, finally, everyone is looking forward to: the conservatory of Anatomy . On cabinets and showcases arranged all around the room, are exposed, and meticulously described, anatomical pieces (dissections anatomy pathological...), wax moldings and parts (cancer and venereal lesions...) and various pieces of anthropology, embryology, malformations, surgical procedures, skeletons, instruments...

The collections of the conservatory of anatomy in Montpellier were listed as a historic monument in 2004. Another reason to visit this museum that has nothing to envy its fellows. The large piece of 61 meters long and 15 meters high where natural curiosities are exposed resembles a true morbid landscape. But these pieces were used to teach the wonders of the human body.

Among the remarkable pieces of the museum, one can remember the famous Peeled Alphonse Lami, the very many vertebrate skeletons, the very evocative wax moldings, presenting the different stages and aspects of venereal and cancerous diseases, or (and above all) rare specimens of monstrous and congenital malformations (collection of teratology) older than a century and preserved in formol jars.

The museum enriched with new pieces

Thanks to a donation in 2014, the Anatomy Museum expanded and became the most important of France . In fact, the museum welcomed between its walls the works that slept in boxes in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, in the closets of the Delmas-Orfila-Rouvière Museum, named three professors of medicine and anatomy. The museum also received the gift of the prestigious collections “Amador”, transferred from the museums of the Université Paris Descartes.

These two donations supplemented the already richly provided museum with some 7,500 additional pieces. A new room dedicated to the anatomical collections was built in the historic building of the Faculty of Medicine, on the top floor of the Faculty of Medicine.

New hidden pieces soon unveiled to the public?

In 2015, it is planned to move the medical college to the hospital district. The Anatomy Museum will not move and hidden pieces could be unveiled to the public... For the moment, only a small part of this new restored collection is presented to the public as part of the exhibition In flesh and bone .