PATRIMONY
A look back at the inauguration of the restored Louis Pasteur House in Arbois and the permanent "Microbes are Life!" exhibition
September 11, 2026 saw the inauguration of the restored Louis Pasteur House and new permanent exhibition devoted to contemporary microbiology – "Microbes are Life!". More than 150 people including project partners and sponsors were in attendance to celebrate the event in Arbois.
"Preserving Louis Pasteur's home means preserving a place where a chapter of scientific history was written. But it also means bringing his legacy to life by examining it in light of today's knowledge. With this new permanent exhibition devoted to 21st century microbiology, the Academy of Sciences wanted to show how the discoveries initiated by Pasteur continue to enlighten contemporary issues surrounding health, environment and food."
Pascale Cossart
honorary permanent secretary of the French Academy of Sciences
and professor emerita at the Institut Pasteur
Louis Pasteur's home in Arbois has belonged to the Academy of Sciences since 1991 and receives some 25,000 visitors every year. It is managed by the public institution for cultural cooperation "Terre de Louis Pasteur", which also involves the towns of Dole and Arbois in addition to the Academy. With the restoration of the house and garden, aided by the Fondation du patrimoine, a permanent exhibition was curated, and a visitors' area and shop were developed and an elevator added to improve access to the different floors.
A unique scientific heritage site
Situated at number 83 rue de Courcelles on the banks of the Cuisance river, the family home in Arbois was a former tannery bought by Louis Pasteur's father in 1830. It was here that the scientist spent his childhood and teenage years, returning often with his family and friends throughout his life, to unwind while continuing his work in the laboratory he built there, the only one still intact today!
Here, he conducted his seminal work on fermentation, and developed his pasteurization process and spontaneous generation theory.
The building was listed as a historical monument in 1937 and recognized under the "Maisons des Illustres" scheme by the French Ministry of Culture in 2011. The scientist's living environment is still intact, together with his furniture, equipment and laboratory notebooks, as well as several pastels and drawings from his youth.
An extensive restoration project and new spaces open to the public
Initiated by the French Academy of Sciences in 2022 to mark the bicentenary of Louis Pasteur's birth, the renovation project was possible thanks to the purchase of the adjacent "Horbach" house in 2021. The renovation work and extension served to consolidate the historical building, carefully restore the interior decoration including the original wallpaper, create a passage between the two buildings and renovate the ornamental garden. There is now an elevator for people with reduced mobility to reach the upper floors.
Visitors can also now visit the second floor which reveals a new heritage space: Louis Pasteur's library which houses valuable documents such as his laboratory notebooks annotated by hand; these archives are included in the Unesco Memory of the World Register.
"Microbes are Life!": an invitation to explore invisible life
The brainchild of Pascale Cossart, honorary permanent secretary of the French Academy of Sciences and professor emerita at the Institut Pasteur, in collaboration with CNRS Director Tam Mignot, the exhibition enables visitors to extend their visit of the heritage site with a contemporary microbiology approach.
The exhibition is on two levels in French and English, and invites visitors to explore the world of bacteria, viruses, protozoa, fungi and microalgae in four stages. It fully embraces the One Health approach and highlights the interconnectedness of human, animal and environmental health. Far from anxiety inducing, the exhibition conveys a deeply optimistic message about microorganisms – the invisible pillars of life on Earth.
