Musée de la Franc-Maçonnerie
Encyclopedia
The Musée de la Franc-Maçonnerie, also known as the Musée du Grand Orient de France et de la Franc-Maçonnerie européenne, is a museum of Freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

 located in the 9th arrondissement at 16, rue Cadet, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. It is open daily except Sundays and Mondays; an admission fee is charged. The closest métro station is Cadet
Cadet (Paris Metro)
Cadet is a station on Line 7 of the Paris Métro. It is named after Rue Cadet, itself named after M. Cadet de Chambine, owner of much land through which the street passes. The street was called Rue de la Voirie before being renamed. Numbers 9 and 11 are the old Hôtel Cromot du Bourg...

.

The museum was established in 1889 by the Grand Orient de France
Grand Orient de France
The Grand Orient de France is the largest of several Masonic organizations in France and the oldest in Continental Europe, founded in 1733.-Foundation:...

 as a cabinet of curiosities
Cabinet of curiosities
A cabinet of curiosities was an encyclopedic collection in Renaissance Europe of types of objects whose categorical boundaries were yet to be defined. They were also known by various names such as Cabinet of Wonder, and in German Kunstkammer or Wunderkammer...

 in the Hotel Cadet. It was despoiled in the German occupation of France during World War II but reopened in 1973, and in 2000 became an official museum of France. In that same year, many of its historical documents were returned from Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, where they had been held by the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...

 after Germany's defeat in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Today the museum presents the history of French Freemasonry through its symbols, grades, documents, and objects. It contains approximately 10,000 items displayed in permanent exhibit space (800 m²), about 23,000 volumes in its archives (400 m²), and a further 400 m² dedicated to temporary exhibits. Among the historically important items in its collection are Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...

's masonic apron (1778), Lafayette
Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette , often known as simply Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer born in Chavaniac, in the province of Auvergne in south central France...

's masonic sword, a first edition of James Anderson's Constitutions of the Free Masons (1723), satirical prints by William Hogarth
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...

 (1697-1764), Meissen
Meissen
Meissen is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral and the Meissen Frauenkirche...

porcelain figurine (1740), etc.
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