The Agriculture Conservatoire , ‘Le Compa’, is a society museum of history, science, techniques and Fine Arts which addresses the past as much as the modern world. It focuses on the transformations and developments within agriculture and questions the new meanings and functions of modern society. It examines society and its relationship to the environment, - building bridges between the town and the country, offering a cultural and technical approach to innovation to uncover the new “stakes” of the world of agriculture.
‘Le Compa’ offers a rich and varied programme of events, exhibitions, workshops, lectures shows and festivals, enabling the public to understand the surrounding world.
At the click of your mouse you browse the seasonal events. The museum gives recommendations for reading the history, sciences, phenomena and techniques around the great themes of our agriculture environment that ceaselessly feed the cultural project of the museum.
Refer to the museum agenda to create your own programme ... ‘Le Compa‘is waiting for you.
Each season the museum proposes a game for you to play, and this season we suggest the game ‘Chinese Portrait’. For instance what would Le Compa‘ be if it were an object ? a meeting ? a sound ? a word ? a book ? or a workshop ? It is for you to imagine as you go through the various facets that make up the very identity of the place.
The ‘Conservatoire de l’agriculture’ has been created around an important collection which traces the entire history of agriculture and its mechanization from 1830 to 1960.
The range of items on display changes with each season along with selected moments of the restoration process of some machines. You are invited to travel through this memorabilia of more than 2500 items which the museum has enhanced and conserved for you to share and enjoy.
In tracing this history from 1800 through to 1960 the Conservatoire presents functional machinery often unique, such as the first Mc Cormick harvester (1831) tractors such as Sawyer-Massey 1910, a Moline and a Waterloo Boy.
The collections,originally oriented towards machines and agriculture tools are now expanding and diversifying. The trades of saddlers, blacksmiths, and cartwrights participate in keeping the memory of rural artisanship alive. An iconographic heritage of more than 300 original photographs and 270 graphic prints and posters help us demonstrate the rural world to better understand its social technical and scientific changes.
Whether they are currently on display, on loan to other institutions or just recently acquired, they are all recorded on our website, each object reveals the richness and variety of the museum collections.
Through the intimate knowledge of the members of Association du Compa our collections are faithfully restored. The standing exhibition of about 70 machines is constantly being rotated with restored machinery and machinery from storage to ensure a freshness is maintained. View on-line special moments from the process of restoration.
Step by step. ‘The Compa‘invites you to discover on line what goes on in the wings of restoration. Selected moments, photo reports, technical zooms gives you an insight into the working life of the’Le Compa‘ museum.
Where ?
Conservatoire de l'agriculture, near Chartres
1, rue de la République
28300 MAINVILLIERS
in the vicinity of the Cathedral, 200 metres from the Railway Station
Phone : 33(0)2 37 84 15 00
Fax : 33(0)2 37 36 55 58
How ?
The museum is an hour away from Paris-Montparnasse.
Motorways : A10 - A11
Roads : RN10 - RN23 - RN154
When ?
From Thuesday to Friday
9:0 - 12h30 and 01:30 - 07:00
Saturday, Sunday and Public Holiday
10:00 - 12:30 and 01:30 - 07:00
Monday closed
Entrance fees :
single : 5,00€
elderly, teachers, students : 3,00€
6-18 years old : 2,00€
groups : 3,00€
schoolchildren : free
museum's friends : be a privileged visitor and support the museum activities
Compa's association membership fee : 18€
Accessibility for the disabled :
free parking facilities
shop : books, toys, scale models, cards, home products