Musée Anako du Château de la Reine de Sicile

Along with the Château de Saumur and the Maison du Roi, the Château de la Reine de Sicile is one of the most emblematic civil monuments in the town of Saumur. Yolande d'Aragon, Queen of Sicily, Aragon, Lorraine, Anjou and Jerusalem, and mother of King René d'Anjou, wrote her will here and died in 1442.

The former defensive fortress was transformed into a noble residence in the 15th century and was home to a wide range of activities. In the second half of the 20th century, the château housed an association centre and then the Saumur university centre until September 2021. Since 2022, the Yolande d'Aragon conference room has been home to the bimonthly "Tribulations d'Anako" programme of audiovisual events, screenings, debates and film lectures, all hosted by passionate and talented film-makers.

From spring 2023 onwards, the Queen of Sicily's castle will present ethnographic exhibitions from the Foundation and the Anako association in over 500 m2 of rooms and spaces, turning it into a veritable "Quai Branly of the Loire Valley".

The last tribal societies with oral traditions, the last itinerant hunter-gatherers, the last traditional agricultural societies or the last great nomads from the four corners of the world, all these traditional societies, many of which are still matriarchal or matrilineal societies, have preserved a powerful link with nature and have learned to respect it as one respects one's own mother.

This is an unforgettable encounter with our differences, with wise peoples and with the last root peoples of the human family.