HALLE DU VERRE

At Claret you’ll find the Glass Museum featuring glassmaking - a long tradition in Languedoc - and telling the story of this noble material’s use around the Mediterranean. Come and discover the magic of glass and the secrets of its manufacture.

From the late thirteenth century, gentlemen glassmakers blew the glass on the plateau of the Hortus Causse. A royal decree granted them the right to practice ‘the art and science of glass’ without derogation, meaning without losing their titles of nobility. As a group of craftsmen, they held their general meetings in Sommières. To get there, they took a path, now called ‘the path of the glassmakers’.

For nearly five centuries, gentlemen glassmaking dynasties have blown glass around Pic Saint-Loup. The Glass Hall presents this unique tradition as well as depicting the origin and history of glass in the Mediterranean; it explains the gestures, techniques and know-how involved in this centuries old skill.