La Maison des Canuts

A bright red sign marks the entrance to La Maison des Canuts, a small museum tucked into the Croix Rousse district. This neighborhood served as the heart of the silk weaving industry during the nineteenth century. The weavers, known as canuts, lived and worked in these buildings with high ceilings designed to accommodate massive looms. In eighteen thirty-one, these workers launched a famous revolt over their wages, sparking an uprising that forced the French army to retreat from the city entirely.