Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Museum of Vauluisant, also known as the Bonneterie Museum, occupies the Hotel de Vauluisant, a Renaissance building classified as a Historical Monument since 1904. Originally, the site belonged to the 12th century Cistercian Abbey of Notre-Dame de Vauluisant. Destroyed by the fire of 1524 that ravaged Troyes, it was rebuilt around 1550 by Antoine Hennequin, receiver of the sizes, who erected the characteristic turret pavilion. The left wing, added in the seventeenth century, was initiated by Jean de Mesgrigny, lord of Marcilly, and completed in 1688 by François de Mesgrigny.

Acquired by the city of Troyes in 1932, the hotel became an annex to the Saint-Loup museum dedicated to decorative arts. In 1948, he joined the collections of the Industrial Conservatory to form the Bonneterie Museum, celebrating the local mesh industry. Renovated between 1950 and 1957, he was officially appointed Museum of Vauluiser in 1959. Its architecture combines a Renaissance facade decorated with pediments and angelots, a porch in the middle of the hangar, and two turrets framing an inner courtyard accessible by a horse-drawn iron staircase.

The museum is divided into two sections: one dedicated to 16th-century Champagne art (paintings, sculptures, stained glass windows, elements of wood-paned houses), the other devoted to the history of wood-knitting, from wooden crafts to industrial machinery. The collections include textile machines, historical stockings and jerseys, as well as an educational room on Troyian stained glass. The hotel, the former headquarters of the Grand Circle Troyen in the 19th century, symbolizes both the architectural heritage of Troyes and its industrial heritage.

Ranked for its monumental porch, Renaissance fireplace and family coat of arms, the building also preserves traces of its religious past. The museum showcases works from local churches, fragments of medieval pavements, and objects related to the bontier corporations. Its location facing the church of Saint-Pantaléon strengthens its anchoring in the historical fabric of the city.

The successive renovations (1863 by the Troyen Circle, 1950–1957 by the Historical Monuments) preserved its interior decorations, such as the exposed beams and the Champagne apparatus. Today, the museum illustrates the golden age of wood-knit (XIX-20th centuries) while celebrating the Troyan Renaissance art, making it a hybrid place between history and industry.

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