La Rochère Glass Works

The small village of Passavant-la-Rochère, in the department of Haute-Saône, is the most northerly community in France-Comté, and has a long history of industrial activity. Its population, now less than 700, has declined from a peak of 1,805 in 1851. The glass works in the village was set up in 1475 by Simon de Thysac who brought from Bohemia the technique of making window glass by blowing cylinders that were cut and flattened. The works ceased working after a fire that destroyed the village in 1595, and after the destruction wrought by the Seven Years War in the seventeenth century, but has continued production without interruption since the 1660s. In 1870 it began to make glass tiles, and continues to provide glass for walls and floors in modern buildings, as well as manufacturing elegant tableware. Production was largely mechanised in the 1960s and 70s, but some traditional glass-blowing continues. A substantial new investment was made in furnaces and presses from 1999. The works was opened to visitors in 1970, and is now the most-visited tourist attraction in Haute-Saône. Visitors can observe glass blowers at work and collections of past and present products. The museum shop is in a traditional seventeenth-century building. The works was given the distinction of an ‘enterprise du Patrimoine vivant’ (an enterprise of living heritage) in 2009.

La Rochère Glass Works
Verrerie La Rochère
Rue de la Verrerie
70210 Passavant-la-Rochère
France
+33 (0) 384 - 924233
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