The Cité du Vitrail Opens in Troyes

In the small world of master glassmakers, the opening of the Cité du Vitrail is an event eagerly awaited for nearly 50 years by the project’s most fervent supporters. "The idea was first evoked in 1977 during a congress held in Troyes,” says Alain Vinum, representative of the fifth generation of master glasspainters and consultant to the Cité du Vitrail. “Various colleagues were presenting their pieces, and I showed some 16th-century stained-glass windows , which had been tucked away in a box in our workshop for decades. We suddenly remembered the words of the medievalist Louis Grodecki (1910-1982), who called Troyes "the holy city of stained glass". Long before him, in the 18th century, Pierre Le Veil (1708-1772), one of the first historians to take up the subject, stated that "there is perhaps no canton in France containing such exquisite painted windows and in such quantity as the city of Troyes in Champagne, and its surroundings." Three centuries later, a few key figures give an idea of this wealth: in the département of Aube, 9,000 m2 of stained-glass windows dating from before the French Revolution have been…