Education

The Memorial is an artistic, political, urban project that offers multiple interdisciplinary approaches that incorporate history, history of art, civics, art education, literature, languages, geography, and philosophy… For this reason, we invite teachers to develop multi-disciplinary projects that encourage and nurture students’ personal or collective expression.

Visiting the Memorial

You may choose either an independent or guided visit with your students.
To help you prepare the visit, feel free to download a pedagogical file called « Nantes et la traite des Noirs aux 18e et 19e siècles » from the castle’s website. Pedagogical suggestions and visits are adapted according to school levels and curricula – Cycle 3, Middle School, and High School.

Middle and High School

From History to Memory: The Slave Trade and Slavery in Nantes
This pedagogical tour occurs in three stages: 1. A visit of the displays in the Nantes History Museum devoted to the slave trade (one hour and a half); 2. A walk through the city between the Château des Ducs de Bretagne and the Memorial (1 hour); and 3. A visit to the Memorial for the Abolition of Slavery (30 minutes).
Independent or guided visit
Duration: 3 hours (half-day) for middle and high schools.

Cycle 3

The rooms of the Nantes History Museum covering the slave trade may be visited independently or with a guide (1h30). There is no guided tour for the Memorial. The historical visit to the Nantes History Museum about the slave trade should be separate from the commemorative visit of the Memorial in order to avoid possible confusion between history and memory.

– Self-guided tour of the Memorial, free entry
– Self-guided tour of the walk « De l’histoire à la mémoire » (from History to Memory), free entry
– Guided tour of the walk « De l’histoire à la mémoire » (from History to Memory), €60 for residents of the Greater Nantes area, and €80 for others
The guided tour is free for elementary school groups and Greater Nantes area schools (depending on availability).
On presentation of the reservation agreement, teachers enjoy free access to prepare their class visit the Nantes History Museum prior to the assigned date.

School Reservations :
Monday: 9:00 to 12:00 / 14:00 to 18:00
Tuesday to Friday:9:00-12:30 / 13:30-18:00
Phone number: + 33 (0)2 40 20 60 11
Fax: + 33 (0)2 51 17 48 65
Email : scolaires@nantes-tourisme.com
Give the General conditions of sale for school groups (remove them from adult group reservations)

Borrowing a traveling exhibition

Ten Powerful Women

High Schools
Portraits of Women who Combatted Colonial Slavery
This exhibit pays tribute to 10 women who struggled against colonial slavery from the 17th Century to the end of the 19th Century. They include Olympe de Gouges, a woman of letters, Dandara, a Maroon from Brazil, Sainte Bélair, a Haitian rebel who was Toussaint-Louverture’s aide-de-camp; Anne Knight, an English feminist, and Sojourner Truth, an American emancipated slave…
These portraits do not do justice to the lives of the millions of enslaved women who participated in resistance movements and contributed to the survival of their groups and of all of society. Thanks to these women’s courage and determination, they remain “femmes courage” (Brave women) and “femmes debout” (Women standing tall).

The traveling exhibit consists of 12 freestanding panels, which may be borrowed at no charge once a loan agreement is signed. The panels are packaged in a 115 kg shipping crate. Transportation and insurance costs are covered by the borrower.

For information and reservations, please contact the temporary exhibition manager at : contact@chateaunantes.fr
Download the catalog of the exhibition


Groups

Guided visits: visits by an official guide, upon booking.

Visit of the Quartier Feydeau and the Memorial for the Abolition of Slavery

The Memorial is in the immediate proximity of sites and monuments related to Nantes’ slave-trading history. This guided tour of the city helps the visitor understand the traces of what was one of the city’s main activities in the 18th and 19th centuries. You will discover the private mansions of slave vessel owners, the docks from which these vessels departed for Africa and the West Indies, iconic locations such as the Passerelle Schœlcher, and economic locations like the stock exchange…

Length : a 2.5 hour walk
Entry fee : €236, all tax included, (additional supplement on Sundays and holidays)
Groups : 25 people maximum per guide
+ info : Discover the history of the slave trade and the slave system at the Nantes History Museum at the Château des Ducs de Bretagne
Access* : 2,3 km


From History to Memory:
The Slave Trade and Slavery in Nantes

From the 17th to the 19th Century, the slave trade played a dominant role in the commerce of Nantes and contributed to the city’s wealth. The journey begins at the History Museum with the visit of the rooms on the “vile trade,” in early abolitionists’ words, continues with the discovery of the neighborhoods and monuments of Nantes that are related to the city’s slave-trading past, and ends at the Memorial for the Abolition of Slavery.

Lenght : 3 hours
Entry fee : Entry fee: €6, tax included, per person (adult)
Flat rate for a guided visit for groups of 25: €180 tax included
One free entry for groups of 24
Prices on request for catering and snacks
Groups : 25 maximum per guide
+ info : Closes during the last week of January each year for maintenance
Suggestion : Meals or snacks upon request
Access*** : Partial access for people with disabilities 4 km


Group reservations
Monday: 9:00 to 12:30 / 13:30 to 18:00
Tusday to Friday: 9:00 to 12:30 / 13:30 to 18:00
Tel: +33 (0)2 40 20 60 11
Fax: +33 (0)2 51 17 48 65
groupes@nantes-tourisme.com

Download the specific and general conditions of sale for adult groups

Consult the catalog for group visits by Nantes.Tourisme


Presse

Download our 2019 press kit