The Manufacture des Gobelins is possibly the oldest continuously-existing industrial operation in France, with roots going back to the 15th-century, although the product it’s famous for, exquisite tapestries, is not where things started—and in fact, the Gobelin brothers who started it never had anything to do with tapestry. Another balloon punctured!
As it happens, though, the story is just as interesting without that. The Gobelins were dye merchants and skilled dyers, known for their work with difficult and expensive Venetian dyes. Their premises, now part of the 13th arrondissement, backed up on the Bievre River, very convenient for dumping run-off. In 1602, Henri IV rented space there for Flemish tapestry makers he brought to work for him. That arrangement lasted nearly 60 years.
In 1662, Louis XIV’s agents bought out the Gobelins and began developing it into a supplier of tapestries and furniture for Versailles and other palaces and government buildings. It stopped producing furniture in 1694, but with only brief interruptions, it has continued as the French government’s official tapestry supplier, and a source of income for the government as well.
The elegant facade building on Avenue des Gobelins was built in 1912 to replace a building badly damaged during the Commune. The medallions on the facades show workers at the trades and arts within—dyers, weavers, painters and more.
Unfortunately, the display gallery wasn’t open when I visited… but there will come a day…
