23/43.- Lyon, Palais du Commerce

In this photo you see the beautiful building of Lyon's Chamber of Commerce. This building is in the old silk workshops' district, in Croix-Rousse. The history of the silk production in Lyon is more than 450 years old. The story begins when Francois I --and later Henry IV-- encouraged the establishment of silk manufacture in Lyon to break the monopoly of the Genoese in Europe.

With the silk production capitalism was born in Lyon. Several revolutionary techniques were born in this city. At the end of the 19th century many familiar workshops disappeared, and a few years later there was not a single 'canut' in Lyon. Nowadays Lyon is a world leader in textile design.

[Next »]