09/26/2014 / The Rôtillon, Uncategorized / Comments Off

A bespoke shoemaker in our neighborhood

One has to travel far to find a bespoke shoemaker… well, actually not that far after all. We are proud to announce that such a rare pearl just established his shop in our neighborhood. He deserves all our encouragements. The official inauguration will be on the night before Crispin day, the patron saint of shoemakers and leather workers. That is on the day exactly 11 years after the official opening of our shoe museum.

You can see more on the Webpage of Guillaume Deuzet.

06/20/2014 / The Rôtillon / No Comments »

Even our streets had a face lift

The streets of our neighborhood are finally free from graffiti and tags accumulated during two or three decades by successive layers. This is the final touch of the development of the neighborhood. The atmosphere of gangs that never really roamed in our streets is gone. Pessimists are already betting on the first appearance of childish scribbles on the walls by those attempting to mark a territory that isn’t theirs. As for us, we enjoy the moment of silenced walls in our neighborhood, hoping it lasts at least for a while.

06/16/2014 / News, The Rôtillon / No Comments »

Two new street names for the Rôtillon

A small celebration will be held this Friday, June 20 to inaugurate the completion of Rôtillon project. The streets are all newly paved with cobble stones and look great now. The final touch is a spring-clean of the remaining old buildings. The gaudy facades covered with graffitis and tags receive a fresh coat of paint and we just completed the renovation project for the museum. We will open our doors to the public, but also set up a special booth about leather and tanning in the “Rue du Flon”. A currently nameless alley will receive the name of Tanners Alley (Ruelle des Tanneurs) to remember the past of this neighborhood. Also the long stairs next to the Café des Artisans will be called the Cobbler’s Stairs (Escaliers des savetiers) from now on. It fills our heart with joy to see that the city is finally giving credit to the industrious “leathery” past that flourished here a long time ago.

06/14/2014 / The Rôtillon / Comments Off

Our neighborhood, the Rôtillon

Our neigborhood, the Rôtillon was once the industrial centre of the medieval and post medieval town of Lausanne. Lots of changes happened over time, like in all neighborhoods.

Evolution of the Rôtillon over 300 years

Looking at its history we could n0t have chosen a better spot for our Shoe Museum. We are in the ancient neighborhood of tanners, shoemakers and other leather professionals. The tanneries dissapeared with the covering of the river Flon, about a century ago. Like many rivers crossing towns, its destiny is similar to another famous tanner’s river, the Bièvre in Paris. For a long time they supplied the tanneries with water. In the 19th century they where covered up and turned into streets. Later on their water was deviated and now they serve as sewers and for the evacuation of rain water.

The map below shows local leather professionals that used to work in our neighborhood. Nowadays they are all gone and our museum can count as a small monument to a local economic glory of the past.

09/12/2013 / The Rôtillon / No Comments »

Cobblestone paving in front of our doors