Traboule et Cour des Voraces

The Cour des Voraces is identified by a massive, six-story open-air staircase that zigzags up the interior facade of an old silk-weaving building. Built in the early nineteenth century, these covered passageways, or traboules, allowed weavers to carry their delicate silk products across the city while keeping them dry during rain. In nineteen thirty-four, silk workers gathered here to organize a major strike, earning the courtyard its name from the Voraces, a secret society of militant republican workers who met in this stairwell.