Textile Arts Museum, Textile museum in 2nd arrondissement, France
The Textile Arts Museum occupies two 18th-century mansions and presents over two million textile pieces spanning four millennia of global fabric production. The collection includes fabrics, carpets, and other woven works from many cultures and time periods.
The Lyon Chamber of Commerce founded the museum in 1864 to document the city's silk manufacturing heritage, which dominated European textile production for 500 years. The institution emerged from a desire to preserve the region's rich craft tradition.
The museum displays rare Persian rugs and European silks that reveal how textile craftsmanship evolved over centuries. Walking through the rooms gives you a sense of the techniques and materials that artisans valued in different periods.
The building on rue de la Charité is easy to locate and accessible by public transport. Guided tours are offered in multiple languages, and specialized textile research facilities are available on-site.
The museum preserves documentation of the Jacquard loom technology, developed in Lyon, which revolutionized textile production through mechanized pattern weaving. This invention made it possible to produce complex patterns faster and more precisely than ever before.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
