This morning we explored Presque-Ile, heading north from our hotel. We walked all the way to the edge of the “Croix Rousse” district. We’ve come to a square called Place des Terreaux. Time for a break! We ordered a couple of coffees at a little cafe and hung out until our legs told us they’re ready to get started again.
Place des Terreaux
There’s a huge square here called Place des Terreaux. It’s the biggest square in Lyon. The word “Terraux” translates to something like “muddy ditches.” I think it might be related to the English word, “terrain.” Don’t know that for certain.
This used to be a critical area for the defense of the city. There was a castle here, and it was surrounded by big ditches or moats to help keep the bad guys out. And since the two rivers are right here, I guess the whole area outside the castle was a big, muddy mess half the time. That’d make it tough going for the poor guys trying to scale the walls, eh?
Many years later, when castles with moats around them were no longer in vogue, the whole area was filled in and paved over. The resulting space eventually became Place des Terreaux.
Other than just being a really huge open area in the middle of a city, the other thing that draws people here is a wild statue by Frederic Bartholdi. Does that name sounds familiar? He’s the guy who made the Statue of Liberty.
The statue he made that’s in Place des Terreaux is a big fountain with a lady driving four angry horses out of the water. It looks more impressive in person compared to looking at it in this little picture.
Le Croix Rousse
We’re at the edge of the district known as “Croix Rousse.” Presque-Ile is nice, expansive, and laid out in an organized way. The Croix Rousse neighborhood, on the other hand, is compact and “old-style.” It’s famous for being the home of Lyon’s silk weavers.
In the years shortly after the renaissance, Florence, Italy, was the textile capital of Europe. But because there was so much fighting between rival city-states, Florence wasn’t a safe place to be. As a result, there was a mass movement of silk weavers out of (what is now) Italy. Many of them settled in Lyon. Lyon became the silk weaving capital of the western world.
For hundreds of years, silk weaving was to Lyon what the automobile business was to Detroit. Practically everyone participated in the business either directly or indirectly. And the biggest concentration of them was in the Croix Rousse district.
You can go to that neighborhood today, and it’s not that much different from the way it was back in the day. There are a number of museums where you can see how people lived in tiny two-story houses. The bottom floor was where they did their weaving. The upper floor was where they lived.
The Silkworkers of Lyon — Les Canuts
Silkworkers in Lyon were called “Canuts.” (Pronounced “ka-NUE”). They owned their own looms, maybe just one or maybe a few, and they were paid by the piece. The guys who paid them were bankers and traders who specialized in the silk business.
In 1830 or so, there were about 8,000 Canuts in Lyon. And those 8,000 employed another 30,000 apprentices. Then there was a whole supporting cast of other people needed to keep things going: loom mechanics, tool-makers, card-makers, spinners, dryers, dyers, and people who worked on silk-raising farms.
In 1831, there was a slump in the economy world-wide. For the Canuts, that meant a steady drop in the price of silk, along with a corresponding drop in their incomes. To try and alleviate the situation, they organized themselves, then tried to have the price of silk set at an artificially high price.
That didn’t go over so well. One thing led to another and it ended up in a huge armed revolt in Lyon. There was something like 600 casualties, including more than 100 people killed. It’s known today as the Canut Revolt.
This was one of the first conflicts anywhere that was more or less union folks vs. non-union folks. The industrial revolution was just starting, so there would be a lot more of the same on the way, eh?
There was one particular weaver with lot on the ball living in Lyon around the time of the Canut Revolt. He invented a loom that dramatically improved the quality and speed of the weaving process. His name was Joseph Marie Jacquard.
A lot of Canuts were pretty upset about Jacquard’s loom. They tried to have it outlawed because it improved the weaving process so much that the price of silk goods was bound to drop even further. I tell you, it was not a good time to be a Canut!
To be continued…
Featured Image: The Croix Rousse District, seen across from the Saone River. Pline/Wikimedia Commons
