City by the Sea Museum and La Petite Belle Homeport
The City by the Sea Museum, home of the Palacios Area Historical Association, occupies a 1910, two-story downtown building, one of the oldest in fact within the city limits. The Odyssey is an exhibition of artifacts excavated from the French shipwreck La Belle of 1686, discovered at the bottom of Matagorda Bay, and distributed among seven museums across the Texas coastal region that, together, tell the story of French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.
The biggest local draw, of course, is La Petite Belle – a fully operational, half-scale replica – when it's in port and docked alongside Palacios’ large shrimping fleet.
Watch the following videos to learn more about the excavation of La Belle and the almost 2 million artifacts found in Matagorda Bay. These videos were produced for inclusion in the La Salle Odyssey mobile tour.