Museum Permanent Exhibition: Victor Hugo, travelling down the memory|
Permanent Exhibition Victor Hugo, traveling down the memory |
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To complete the reorganisation of the first floor, the space is no longer arranged by theme as it was for the previous permanent exhibition, "Nineteenth century, the fashion of an age": corridor, small room and main hall. Under the name of Victor Hugo, travelling down the memory, the new exhibit is a collection of the different items that had been part of the house for so many years since it first opened as the Victor Hugo House in 1902. The idea of "Victor Hugo, travelling down the memory" is to convey three basic messages: 1. Victor Hugo was in Pasaia in 1843. 2. In 1902 this house-museum was opened by two French exiles. 3. Victor Hugo left a testimony of his stay with his writings and drawings. These three fundamental ideas are expressed on three information panels located in different parts of the house and are backed by material representing two other key concepts: 1. Victor Hugo's everyday life, through recordings heard in the same room he occupied. 2.Pasaia seen by Victor Hugo, with the interactive audiovisual "A tourist guide named Victor Hugo", available in the audiovisual room. Most of the items in the collection are from the original museum opened in 1902, and now are patrimony of Kutxa. The period-piece furnishings that belonged to the house and formed part of the collection of the former owner Antonio Orueta in the 1940s were acquired by public auction by the regional development agency
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On the ground floor an introductory panel explains the basic idea of the museum: Victor Hugo was an important French Romantic writer who in 1843 lived for a short time in this house.
When visitors walk upstairs to the first floor they find a panel in the hallway. It explains that in 1902 Déroulède and Habert located the house where the writer had lived and created a house-museum which has undergone different stages since it was first opened.
This room contains the original furniture of the 19th century that belonged to the house. It was purchased at public auction by Oarsoaldea.
The room is a recreation of the bedroom of the grandson of Señora Basquetz, owner of the building which housed Victor Hugo. On the wall visitors can see some of the writer's impressions of his roommate.
The furniture is arranged based on photographs taken in the 1980s when KUTXA reopened the museum. The photographs show the piano beside the fireplace. Most of the pieces on the wall have been recuperated by 
thanks to collaboration with Kutxa, owner of the collection.
The wall pieces include:
- Two facsimiles of drawings made by Victor Hugo in Pasaia, obtained by the National Library of France and printed on hand-crafted watercolour paper:
VICTOR HUGO. Pasaia, 1843. Landscapes from the mountain top. Digital reproduction of a pen-and-ink drawing.
VICTOR HUGO. Pasaia, 1843. Pasaia, August 4th at midday. Digital reproduction of a pen-and-ink drawing.
- Photograph of drawing by Victor Hugo from 1871. ANONYMOUS, c.1902. Thionville, 30 August 1871.
- Digitization and viewing on 19" monitor: VICTOR HUGO (drawings) and F. MEAULLE (engravings). Los trabajadores del mar (Sea workers). Digital image. (San Telmo Museum, Donostia) and Photo Album with pictures of Victor Hugo. Digital image. (Kutxa, Victor Hugo Etxea, Pasaia)
- Poem by Victor Hugo written in Pasaia:
Exhibit in glass display:
- Victor Hugo as a young man. Plaster. Dedicated to "My celebrated friend Victor Hugo. P.J. DAVID".
- Pens, c. 1871. Hand-written by Hugo's friend Paul Meurice: "Pens Victor Hugo used to write "L'Année Terrible" at my house during the seige of Paris. Paul Meurice".
- Pierre-Jean DAVID D'ANGERS. Victor Hugo as a young man (c. 1837). Varnished plaster.
- VICTOR HUGO. En voyage. Alpes et Pyrénées. Paris: Librairie Charpentier et Fasquelle, 1910. Donated by D. Xabier Susperregi.
- Photo Album with pictures of Victor Hugo belonging to the opening collection in 1902.
In 2005 an interactive audiovisual presentation called "A tourist guide called Victor Hugo" recreates Hugo's 1843 journey through the Pyrenees. The presentation uses images, music and the writer's own impressions to highlight the appeal Pasaia held for Hugo and which it still has for many people today. Although the presentation reveals many of the author's impressions on different places along his journey, his comments on Pasaia are perhaps the most surprisingly relevant today.
Since the museum opened in 2007, the room in which Victor Hugo stayed has become one of the most popular parts of the museum. The original period-piece furniture and the recording in five languages of the author's impressions shed light on Hugo's daily activities, from what he had for lunch or dinner, to the walks he took along the bay or up toward Jaizkibel.
Pasaiako Turismo Bulegoa-Oficina de Turismo de Pasaia / Office de Tourisme de Pasaia / Pasaia Tourist Office
Donibane, 63 - 20.110 PASAIA [Gipuzkoa] Tel.: + 34 943 341 556 - Fax: + 34 943 341 777
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