Gobelins Manufactory

The Gobelins Manufactory takes its name from a fifteenth-century family of dyers who operated a workshop on the banks of the Bièvre River. This small, now-buried stream provided the water quality necessary for the family to develop a legendary scarlet dye. The site became a center for artistic production in 1662 when King Louis the Fourteenth and his finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, acquired the property to consolidate the best craftsmen in Europe. Under the guidance of court painter Charles Le Brun, this complex transformed into a self-contained village where weavers, goldsmiths, and furniture makers lived and worked, even maintaining their own brewery to satisfy the preferences of the Flemish artisans.