Description of the attraction
The Parisian Locksmith Museum is also known as the Castle Museum - for thousands of years, it was castles in all countries that were the main works of skilled locksmiths.
The museum is located in the mansion of Liberal Bruant, the author of the project of the Invalides, the first architect of the king. Bruant built it for his family in 1685. By the 19th century, the mansion was practically in ruins, and it was bought by the Bricar company, which was engaged in the production of locks. The company renovated the mansion specifically for the museum.
The collection located here is entirely devoted to the art of making a variety of locks, keys to them and door knockers, which, before the appearance of electric bells, were an indispensable attribute of any residential building. The collection includes locks from the ancient Roman I-II centuries and ending with our days, bronze and iron keys, medieval door rings. Of particular interest are the castles of the 16th-19th centuries, often made at the level of genuine works of art.
In the museum you can see an old locksmith's workshop, tools used by metalworkers hundreds of years ago, their works made of iron and other metals. The pearl of the collection is the locksmiths made by King Louis XVI, who loved locksmithing and blacksmithing and was a hardworking and skilled craftsman. Castles were the subject of special hobby of the king. In the Tuileries Palace, on the third floor, above his bedroom, the monarch set up a locksmith's workshop with a smithy - there were ovens, bellows, anvils, a workbench, and a vice. Only a special servant named Dure had access here, who helped the king clean the premises and clean the tools.
The museum is private, open on weekdays, entrance fee is charged. The Bricard company, which collected the collection and made it public, was founded in 1782 under Louis XIV. For more than two centuries, it has been the largest French firm specializing in locks.
