Snakes

Within a rich encyclopedic collection, the Crozatier museum preserves the snakeskin wardrobe made by a viper killer from Haute-Loire, died in 1902. With this unique and extraordinary collection, the museum set off to meet snakes. Throughout time, this animal has aroused fear, disgust, repulsion… Carrying a strong and often ambiguous symbolism, it is sign of life and death, it heals and it kills, it brings knowledge but deprives us of the Garden of Eden. Yet he is only a peaceful animal fleeing man, essential to the balance of biodiversity. Thanks to the greatest French specialists, this work explores, in a multidisciplinary manner, the different facets of this "unloved". It is supplemented by notices on little-known, astonishing and precious objects, loaned by public collections and private. The Crozatier Museum is an encyclopedic museum founded in 1820, the oldest in Auvergne. Completely renovated, it reopened its doors in 2018 and has since offered thematic exhibitions linked to its collections.