Paul Voivenel Museum
Monument to the Dead in Capoulet-et-Junac by sculptor Antoine Bourdelle. © GNU Free Documentation License
A museum dedicated to Dr Paul Voivenel (1880-1975), a combat gas specialist during the First World War. Situated in Capoulet-Jurac, on the first and second floors of the former home of this doctor who was the first person to identify the syndrome of "war psychoneurosis" among soldiers.
The museum is a collection of souvenirs from a life devoted to medicine, literature and rugby.
While he was studying medicine, in 1899, he became passionate about a sport known as barette, which we now know as rugby.
His love for this sport led to him founding the Pyérénes League and to pen, under the moniker ‘La Sélouze’, a number of columns in the La Dépêche du Midi and the Le Midi Olympique regional newspapers.
He commissioned the Monument to Sport in Toulouse in homage to the victims of war.
Le conflit terminé, il rassemble ses notes dans "Avec la 67ème Division de réserve", grand prix de l'Académie Française.
Auteur de cinquante et un ouvrages, cet humaniste s'est consacré à la neuro-psychiatrie.
Chef de clinique à Toulouse en 1914, il exerce sur le front en tant que responsable d'une ambulance de campagne.
Son action dans le domaine littéraire le conduit à tenir des rubriques dans le Mercure de France, le Figaro etc.
Il se lie d'amitié avec Paul Léautaud, Paul Valéry, François Mauriac, Francis Carcot, Marie de Saint Exupéry, Camille Mauclair notamment.
When the war was over, he compiled his notes in the four-volume Avec la 67ème Division de réserve, which won the Grand Prix from the Académie Française.
An author of some 51 works, this humanist dedicated his career to neuropsychiatry.
A clinic manager in Toulouse in 1914, he worked on the front as a manager of a field hospital.
His literary experience saw him write columns in the Mercure de France, Le Figaro and other newspapers.
He forged friendships with writer and theatre critic Paul Léautaud, poet and philosopher Paul Valéry, writer François Mauriac, writer and journalist Francis Carcot, Marie de Saint Exupéry and poet and novelist Camille Mauclair.
The museum has on display a collection of original documents, manuscripts, photographs, watercolours, sculptures and souvenirs of the Great War, testaments to the life of a man committed to many causes.
Paul Voivenel Museum
09400 Capoulet-et-Junac
Tel: +33 (0)5 61 05 12 57 / 67 79
Email: capoulet.junac@wanadoo.fr
Source: MINDEF/SGA/DMPA
Le docteur Voivenel au Bois de la Selouze (Lacroix sur Meuse) en 1917. Source : perso.wanadoo.fr/jmpicquart/DICTION0.htm
Monument aux morts de Capoulet-et-Junac du scupteur Antoine Bourdelle. © GNU Free Documentation License
Practical information
9400
Capoulet-et-Junac
05 61 05 12 57
Opening times: From 15 July to 15 August: 10.30 am to 12.00 pm and 2.30-6.00 pm Low season: by appointment only.
