The Instituto Cervantes in Lyon organized the exhibition Avec notre passé, tissons notre avenir (With our past, we weave our future) – from 7 June to 30 September 2021. It shows how, thanks to the immigration of important Italian silk craftsmen since the 13th century, Lyon was for centuries a silk-making centre in Europe and became, in the 18th century (the golden age of European silk) the most important city in the design, production and innovation of the silk textile industry, and how, in turn, it exported its know-how to other European towns, especially Valencia in Spain, which later became a major centre of production.