Ancien camp d'internement de tsiganes
MonumentHidden Treasure
Ancien camp d'internement de tsiganes, located in Montreuil-Bellay (Maine-et-Loire), is a medieval landmark built in the Middle Ages. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Medieval (11th-15th century)
- Location
- Montreuil-Bellay, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de la Loire
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.1156, -0.1252
- Mérimée Reference
- PA49000079
The only surviving internment camp for gypsies in France, Montreuil-Bellay is a moving reminder of a forgotten persecution. A place of remembrance listed as a Historic Monument, unique of its kind.
History
In the heart of the Maine-et-Loire region, just a stone's throw from the moat of the famous medieval castle of Montreuil-Bellay, lies a place that history could have erased: one of the few Gypsy internment camps still visible on French soil. Classified as a Historic Monument, this site is a precious anomaly - a place of raw memory, preserved not for its architectural beauty, but for the irreducible force of its testimony. What makes this place special is precisely what it refuses to embellish. There are no spectacular reconstructions here, no sophisticated museographic decor to mediate emotion. It's the structures themselves - barracks, fences, footprints - that speak, in all their simplicity. Visitors are confronted with a historical reality that has been marginalised for too long: the systematic internment of Gypsy communities in France, ordered from 1940 and continued until 1945 under successive governments. The educational and documentary approach developed on the site is remarkable. Panels, photographic archives and testimonies collected from former internees or their descendants recreate the faces and voices of a community reduced to administrative silence. We learn that entire families - men, women and children - lived in precarious conditions, deprived of their freedom for no other reason than their nomadic lifestyle. The surrounding setting, with its moat and chestnut trees, creates a striking contrast with the seriousness of the place. This juxtaposition is not without significance: it reminds us that persecution does not take place in abstract spaces, but in the heart of deepest France, in familiar and soothing landscapes. A visit here is not simply a historical excursion - it's an intimate confrontation with a painful page in our national memory.
Architecture
The Montreuil-Bellay camp is not monumental architecture in the traditional sense of the term. It is a functional emergency complex, typical of the improvised detention facilities of the Second World War: wooden barracks of basic construction, areas enclosed by barbed wire, and a few permanent buildings used for administration and surveillance. The whole complex occupies a plot of land bounded by fences, some traces of which still remain as tangible evidence of confinement. The materials used were those of scarcity: rough-hewn wood, corrugated iron and breeze-block blocks. The barracks, lined up according to an orthogonal plan typical of camps at the time, were devoid of all comforts. The communal sanitary facilities, water points and forced assembly areas are still visible in the fabric of the site today, even though many of the original structures have suffered from the passage of time and lack of maintenance over the decades. What gives the site its architectural and heritage value is precisely the authenticity of its remains. Unlike other places of remembrance that have been rebuilt or reconstituted, Montreuil-Bellay retains original features that give a direct insight into the concentration camp area. The layout of the barracks, the hierarchy of spaces between the guards' living areas and the internees' areas, and the fencing systems all bear witness to a system of confinement that was banal in its effectiveness and chilling in its banality.
Related Figures
Marcel Peyrouton — ministre de l'Intérieur de Vichy, signataire des premières circulaires d'internement des nomades (1940)René Bousquet — secrétaire général de la police sous Vichy, responsable de l'application des mesures d'internement sur le territoire françaisMarie-Christine Hubert — historienne pionnière de la recherche sur l'internement des Tsiganes en France, dont les travaux ont contribué à la reconnaissance du campJacques Sigot — chercheur et auteur de « Un camp pour les Tsiganes », premier ouvrage à documenter précisément le camp de Montreuil-BellayAdolphe Thiers — préfet du Maine-et-Loire pendant la période d'internement, responsable local de l'application des décretsLes familles Reinhardt, Winterstein et Steinberg — parmi les familles tsiganes internées dont les témoignages ont été recueillis et documentés par les associations mémoriales
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Ancien camp d'internement de tsiganes located?
Ancien camp d'internement de tsiganes is located in Montreuil-Bellay, Maine-et-Loire department, Pays de la Loire region, France.
When was Ancien camp d'internement de tsiganes built?
Ancien camp d'internement de tsiganes dates back to a period built in the Middle Ages (11th-15th century).
Is Ancien camp d'internement de tsiganes open to visitors?
Ancien camp d'internement de tsiganes is currently closed to visitors.