Avignon Museum - Silk Conditioning Museum

The Mont-de-Piété of the city of Avignon, bankrupt by the Revolution and the Law of 4th Pluviôse...

Year 2 stipulating the free redemption of securities, found itself in the beginning of the 19 th century in a deplorable financial situation. The administrators then had the ingenious idea of starting a new public institution that would meet both a local commercial and industrial need as well as the need to procure funds to insure the continuation of its pawn-broking activities. That's how, with the active support of the Guillaume Puy municipality, they instituted and put in place, the 22 nd Frimaire, Year 10 (December 12, 1801), a public Silk Conditioning House, destined to experience significant growth.

During the 19 th century and up until 1928, the Condition des Soies of Avignon, still administered by the Mont-de-Piété - as opposed to other French conditioning houses (Lyon, Saint-Etienne etc.) managed by the Chambers of Commerce - carried out the various processes of drying and assaying required by the local producers and merchants. The Vaucluse and surrounding regions are in fact important silkworm-breeding areas. Producers and merchants came to the Condition d'Avignon to establish indisputably the quality of the silks, the objest of their trade. Originally set up in the former chapel of the Mont-de-Piété, the Condition des Soies gradually grew to finish in the big building with its two beautiful façades, one overlooking the Rue de la Croix and the other over the courtyard of the Mont-de-Piété, Rue Saluces.