Musée d'Archéologie et d'Histoire Locale

The former town hall, built in the neoclassical style in the middle of the 19th century, has housed the museum since 1937. The blue stone staircase decorated with bronzes testifies to the wealth of the city at that time when the mine and the steel industry had transformed the rural village ideally situated on the banks of the Scheldt into a powerful industrial city. The permanent collections reflect the industrial history of Denain through the presentation of objects and paintings of the period. The museum also invites you to take a trip back in time where the archaeological ensemble of the early Middle Ages is the result of excavations undertaken during the passage of the canal to the large gauge, constituting one of the rare material testimonies of the raids carried out by the Normans in the 9th century in the Scheldt valley. Especially noteworthy are the Merovingian beads and the authentic Viking sword.