Bsous Silk Museum ( ar, متحف الحرير بسوس) is a silk museum in the town of

Bsous Bsous is a village in the Aley District of Mount Lebanon with an estimated population of 6,000. It is located 200 to 730 meters above sea level and 14 kilometres from the capital, Beirut. It is both a summer resort as well as being inhabited duri ...

near

Wadi Chahrour Ourrouar is a series of archaeological sites approximately south southeast of Beirut, Lebanon. It is near Hadeth south on the north side of the Nahr Ghedir. Ourrouar I Ourrouar I is east of the bridge over Nahr Ghedir on a platform of sandy, ...

in Lebanon, located around 15 kilometres east of Beirut.

History

The structure was originally built by the Fayad family, and operated as a silk factory between 1901 and 1954. In 1990, for a short time, the factory and the grounds were occupied by the

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. It was restored by its owners, George and Alexandra Asseily, with the help of Jean-Louis Mange, to serve as a museum. The museum opened in 2000 and highlights the 1,500-year-old history of silk production in Lebanon, which ended when the last silk mill closed in the 1970s. Thierry Huau and Francoise Le Noble Predine from Paris, played a major role in the redevelopment of the gardens to the building. Le Noble brought wild silk from Madagascar and together with Mona Sader Issa helped to establish aMED, the Association of Memory and Development. Students of the Lycée Agricole et Horticole of Saint Germain en Laye in France and the Association have been responsible for many ecological projects in the village of Bsous and the pine forests around Beirut. Architect Jacques Abou Khaled, under the management of Sami Feghali were responsible for the redesign of the building into a museum.

Exhibitions

Part of the Silk Museum's permanent collection includes live silkworms. Exhibits demonstrate the process of "hatching" the silkworm, leading to the production of silk thread and weaving through all the various stages. Also on display are domestically made finished silk products, such as traditional Lebanese evening dresses and silk trousers that were worn by princesses in the nineteenth century. There is also has a wing dedicated to eastern silk and gold, and a wing holding the treasures of the Bags Antaki family of

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, dated to the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Visitors on a tour of the museum can also see images of farmers working in the production of silk and silkworm picking and collecting. The museum regularly puts on temporary exhibitions. For instance, in the past, it has put on displays for around 6 months, typically from May to October, displaying artisanal silks and weavings from Cambodia,

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

and Vietnam, and private silk collections from along the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

, including

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and the Middle East. It has also hosted private collections of tribal costumes of

Eric Boudot The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...

and

Teresa Coleman Teresa (also Theresa, Therese; french: Thérèse) is a feminine given name. It originates in the Iberian Peninsula in late antiquity. Its derivation is uncertain, it may be derived from Greek θερίζω (''therízō'') "to harvest or rea ...

References

External links

The Silk Museum
website for the museum in Bsous
Silk Museum, Bsous, Lebanon
pictures of the museum and its grounds on Archnet
Photographs of the museum
{{Textile museums Museums in Lebanon Aley District Textile museums Silk production