Silk formed Lyon’s financial system and id for greater than 4 centuries. This strolling itinerary takes you thru Croix Rousse, Lyon, the historic silk-weaving district that formed town’s id.
What’s the very first thing that springs to thoughts if you hear “Lyon”? Is it…
In case you guessed any of those, you would be proper.
However you’d even be lacking a significant spotlight of Lyon: the silk employees, or canuts, to whom Lyon owes its energy and wealth.
Right here, then, is an itinerary that takes you alongside the canuts’ houses and workplaces on Croix-Rousse hill, referred to as the colline qui travaille (“the hill that works”) versus Fourvière, “the hill that prays”.
This hill was the middle of Lyon’s silk commerce for hundreds of years, its canuts producing materials coveted throughout Europe. It was additionally the place the employees staged the primary main labor revolts in France in 1831 and 1834, foretelling France’s later episodes of unrest.
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Croix-Rousse: Within the footsteps of the canuts
The Croix-Rousse district stays one in every of Lyon’s most distinctive areas, with its steep streets and hidden passageways, and its buildings and courtyards preserving the reminiscence of its silk heritage.
In case you comply with the itinerary under, you’ll see the traces of this historical past within the buildings, courtyards, and museums that protect the reminiscence of the canuts, Lyon’s conventional silk employees.
1. Mur des Canuts – silk heritage in murals
📍 Boulevard des Canuts, 69004 Lyon
Start your stroll on the Mur des Canuts, the immense trompe-l’œil mural that celebrates the life and work of Lyon’s silk weavers. It covers a complete constructing on Boulevard des Canuts, fittingly named after the employees themselves, and is among the largest painted partitions in Europe.
To get right here, take Metro line C to Henon station; stroll down the Boulevard (preserve the pharmacy in your proper) and it’s only a brief stroll. You may see the wall within the distance in your proper.
Look carefully on the mural. Are you seeing a painted fresco or a slice of every day life?
Look once more and also you’ll discover scenes from Lyon’s silk-making historical past woven into the composition. It’s so detailed you may research it for an hour and nonetheless not catch the whole lot.
The mural has been repainted a number of occasions since its creation within the Eighties, every model up to date to replicate adjustments within the neighborhood. So, in a method, it’s a residing doc of silk heritage in Croix-Rousse Lyon.
2. Maison des Canuts – the place Lyon’s silk story begins
📍 10–12 rue d’Ivry, Croix-Rousse
From the mural, it’s only a brief stroll to the Maison des Canuts, a former cooperative turned museum that tells the story of Lyon’s silk trade.
The Maison des Canuts gives an enchanting go to, not solely in regards to the historical past of silk in Croix-Rousse and Lyon extra usually however on the weaving course of; a lot equipment remains to be in working order and demonstrations will make it easier to perceive simply how a lot was concerned in making ready that treasured scarf when the whole lot was made by hand.
The museum additionally covers the canut rebellions, the 1831 and 1834 uprisings that shook Lyon and marked the primary main strikes in France. (You may learn extra about these occasions on my Substack story.)
Customer tip: Guided excursions are primarily in French, though the museum typically gives printed explanations in English. Enable 30-45 minutes.
3. Cour des Voraces – traboules and revolution
📍 Entry at 9 Place Colbert or 14 bis Montée Saint-Sébastien
Subsequent, go to the Cour des Voraces, probably the most well-known traboule in Lyon. Traboules are passageways that allowed employees to hold bolts of silk downhill with out exposing them to rain, they usually turned escape routes throughout uprisings.
Not solely is it one of many space’s longest passageways, but it surely performed a job when the silk weavers rebelled of their combat for higher working situations. The Voraces additionally has hyperlinks to the French resistance throughout World Battle II, serving to rebels escape the Nazis who then occupied Lyon.
Most indicators on the traboule map level to the Place Colbert however as soon as right here, the indicators turn into scarce, so search for a discreet plaque that is simple to overlook.
The Cour des Voraces will not be a traboule within the conventional sense. Whereas traboules are sometimes lined passageways that reduce by metropolis blocks, the Cour des Voraces is an open inside courtyard with a monumental staircase connecting totally different streets. It’s universally included on traboule maps and is a must-see, however technically it is a “cour”, a courtyard.
4. Montée de la Grande-Côte – the canuts’ path to town
📍 Runs between Place des Terreaux and Croix-Rousse
The Montée de la Grande-Côte is the historic artery between the silk workshops above and the retailers under. In November 1831, the primary clashes of the canut revolt broke out right here.
Stroll down the hill alongside the road, now partly pedestrian and lined with outlets and eateries, and facet streets that twist and darken into the gap.
5. Place des Terreaux – seat of energy and website of revolt
📍 Place des Terreaux, 69001 Lyon
On the base of the Grande-Côte lies Place des Terreaux, framed by the Hôtel de Ville on one facet and the Musée des Beaux-Arts on the opposite. In 1831, the silk employees briefly took management of this sq. and of Metropolis Corridor itself, earlier than the military retook Lyon.
The sq.’s focus at present is the Bartholdi fountain, added in 1891, however its position within the canut revolts makes it one of many important stops on this itinerary and a becoming finish to your stroll.
The bouchons lyonnais – consuming conventional meals
This one will not be on the itinerary as a result of you possibly can attempt any of the numerous bouchons in Lyon, and you will find them scattered all through Croix-Rousse, Previous Lyon, and the Presqu’île. (Here is a variety, in French.)
No stroll by Croix-Rousse is full with out a cease at a conventional bouchon, the working-class eating places that after fed the silk employees. Typical fare contains pork-based dishes, hearty gratins, and the native specialty cervelle de canut, which interprets into silk employees’ brains, but it surely’s truly a recent cheese with herbs and garlic.
It’s believed that the bouchons had been initially opened to feed silk employees a mid-morning snack – potatoes, herring or cod or something pig-related, typically left over from dinner the evening earlier than. The girl can be within the kitchen (after all) and the person would deal with service and the wine cellar. These girls ultimately went on to turn into a few of Lyon’s most well-known cooks.
Extra to the purpose is what in inside, on the plate: a basic Andouillette with mustard cream sauce and a Gratin Dauphinois, not mild, however beautifulFor a Croix-Rousse possibility, the Café du Gros Caillou sits close to the massive rock landmark on the high of the hill. In any other case, head downhill into Presqu’île for one in every of Lyon’s many historic institutions.
Wandering the streets of Croix-Rousse, Lyon
Croix-Rousse was a once-independent village so proud that at present, greater than 150 years after it joined Lyon, its residents nonetheless name themselves Croix-Roussiens, not Lyonnais. That sense of id stays robust at present.
Wanting down in direction of Lyon from midway up the Croix-Rousse
For hundreds of years Croix-Rousse was the guts of Lyon’s silk commerce, and Lyon the European capital of silk.
Silk is in all places: in native meals traditions (cervelle de canut, a garlic-herb cheese unfold named after the employees), within the guignol puppet theater that started as canut leisure, and within the bouchons that first served them.
Silk-screener at work in Croix-Rousse, LyonYou’ll discover loads of silk outlets throughout Croix-Rousse and Previous Lyon — Brochier Soieries and Soierie Saint-Georges are among the many finest identified, whereas smaller ateliers like Sophie Guyot keep it up the craft with fashionable designs.
Earlier than you go…
Even for those who’ve visited Lyon earlier than, it’s possible you’ll by no means have ventured past the refurbished previous city or the purchasing boulevards. But understanding Lyon’s historical past inevitably brings you right here, to the Croix-Rousse — the hill that works, the place silk formed each town’s fortunes and its labor historical past.
Croix-Rousse isn’t just one other neighborhood in Lyon.
It’s the place silk created fortunes, and the place the canuts lived and labored, to not point out the positioning of the primary nice strikes in France.
They are saying Lyon was constructed on silk, however they have to truly imply Croix-Rousse as a result of this, in spite of everything, is Lyon’s coronary heart of silk.
This half-day itinerary hyperlinks the every day lifetime of Nineteenth-century employees to at present’s metropolis, and following of their footsteps is among the most culturally rewarding issues to do in Lyon.
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