Le cateau-cambrésis, a city in the countryside

The city has four classed monuments:

• The town hall (built in the middle of the XVI century) and its belfry (built in 1705, under the episcopate of Fénelon)
• The Saint Martin Church (old abbey bénédictine) built from 1634. True architectural jewel of the Baroque art (mannerist), it is also remarkable by the exubérance sculptures of Jaspard Marsy
• The Fénelon Palate: old second home of the Cambric archbishops, lords of Cateau. The current building, between court and garden, date completion of the XVII ème century and shelters since 1982 the Matisse Museum.
• The Lefebvre-Scalabrino brewery, classified historic building under the industrial inheritance, it was renovated it there has two years and shelters the Historique brewery of the Abbey which produces beer “the Cheer”

The city conceals other testimonys of the past:

The vault of the Bon Dieu, vestige of the Notre Dame church (disappeared today)

Vestiges of the ramparts, destroyed at the beginning of the XVII century, a part was rebuilt.

The old college of the Jesuits, whose building and the porch is integrated into current Lycée Camille Desmoulins.

The stained glass “Bees” of Matisse offered by the painter in 1954 for the nursery school which bears its name.

The stained glass “Joy” and the mosaic “Orphée” of Auguste Herbin offered in 1957 to decorate the school complex which bears its name. The stained glass rebuilt with identical in renovated the Matisse Museum, appears there in all its splendour.

Undergrounds: a network of cellars and boves exists in the downtown area where are neighbourly of white stone and brick architectures. Witnesses of the history of the city, the undergrounds are not currently worth visiting.

RALLYE DISCOVER IN THE CITY OF MATISSE Two teams come to research the indices through the streets (and the basement) of the City. An ultimate test waits for the two groups in a historic place…

Duration: 02:00

An atypical village: Neuvilly You can prolong the excursion on the edges of the Saddle by a halt in the village of Neuvilly considered for its “Thirteen vaults”

Duration: 2 hours (1 hour “Discovery of splendours of the valley of the Saddle” + 1 complementary visiting time)