MUSEE D'AUTERIVE - METIERS ET TRADITIONS

Truly a rural heritage in all of its diversity, this museum interests the young as much as older generations who are interested in going back into their past.


The museum’s collections are on display on the ground floor of Auterive Town Hall, in a setting built from local bricks and pebbles from the nearby Ariège. The exceptionally well-preserved collections span a period from the 18th to the 21st century.
As you wander through the aisles leading to 23 arcades, you will discover or rediscover many trades that have often disappeared, such as woodworking trades (a collection of planes, saws, a wood-turning lathe, etc.), wheelwrighting, clog-making, forestry and woodcutting, stoneworking, milling (including a locally discovered Gallo-Roman hand-operated rotary millstone), shoemaking, carding, rope-making, tinsmithing, itinerant knife-grinders, clockmakers, winegrowers and farmers – including a fine collection of yokes, some of which are very old.
You will also find agricultural machinery, hand-operated everyday tools and wooden implements for washing clothes, the butter churn … etc. Artisanal hat-making, hairdressing, hosiery and haberdashery, recreational and professional fishing, hunting with firearms or traps, weighing scales from all eras, the early days of computing and the telephone, schools and their pen holders – which visiting children use with great interest – the fire service (19th-century hand-operated pump, hoses, helmets, uniforms) and exhibits relating to medical, surgical (instruments dating from the Empire period to the 19th century), veterinary, dental and laboratory activities … etc.
Always on hand to provide further information or an anecdote, the volunteers from the “Amicale du Musée d’Auterive” also welcome groups by appointment, all year round.