Silkworm rearing house and silk spinning plant

From the VIth  century, the Syria region, where the climate is particularly favourable for growing mulberry trees and rearing silkworms, became a major silk producer and exporter. In the sixteenth century, silk was one of the major products of the principality of Fakhr Al-Din (1572-1635) in Lebanon, exported to Europe, and in particular to Florence with which the country had close ties. Silk was thus the principal motor of the rapid expansion of the ports of Beirut and Bursa.

Lebanese silks had become much prized on the French market from the XVIIth century. However, after the death of Fakhr Al-Din, production was significantly perturbed by a troubled political situation, resulting namely from litigation linked to the prerogatives of the European consuls, and from the fiscal policy of the Ottoman pashas who collected exorbitant taxes in kind. It was only in the XIXth century that the rearing of silkworms experienced a revival thanks to seed selection and the improvement of the traditional rearing processes. A trade treaty with the Ottoman authorities in 1838, by which the latter undertook to abolish the monopoles on agricultural products and allow free circulation of export merchandise, contributed to attracting to Lebanon European entrepreneurs, especially from France, particularly from Lyon. Their arrival resulted in the improvement of the quality of the silks exported by introducing to Mount Lebanon the processes used in the French spinning mills, and by training labour among the mountain people, not as expensive as in France and long accustomed to working in silk.

The silkworm rearing house of Bsous is a two-storey building constructed of sandstone, with a red tile roof. The ground floor housed an olive press that operated every year from November to February. The upper floor was used as a workshop for the production of silk thread, work which was carried out throughout the year. It is likely that the worms were raised on site, but where is not known. Three annexes were used for housing. Restored in 2000, the silk rearing house was transformed into a silk museum. Very few industrial premises have survived today, and it is difficult to tell if the silkworm rearing houses of Lebanon followed an older architectural model. In 1867, there were sixty-seven spinning plants, and in 1909, there were one hundred and ninety-six.

The manufacture of textiles was the top-most ranking industrial and commercial activity on both shores of the Mediterranean. The luxury fabric par excellence, silk thus became a major economic vector in Lebanon and Syria. From the fifteenthcentury, the production of silk fabrics was for the most part destined for the local market, while in Europe, Lebanese silk was transformed into fabrics which in turn was exported to the countries of the Ottoman Empire. From the sixteenth century, this economic trade favoured the development of contacts between Europe and the Orient, the presence of permanent consuls and the construction of caravanserais.