Le Mur des Canuts (Wall of the Silk Weavers) at the foot of Croix-Rousse is a 1,200 square-metre trompe-l'oeil mural depicting a street scene from the neighbourhood — complete with people, balconies, traboules, staircases, and even a real door and letterbox integrated into the painted surface. It was first painted in 1987 and has been updated several times since, with local residents appearing among the painted figures.
The mural is one of the largest in Europe and a remarkable exercise in illusionist painting. It celebrates the canuts, the silk weavers who made Croix-Rousse prosperous in the 18th and 19th centuries, and gives visitors a vivid sense of what the neighbourhood looked like before Haussmann-era urban renewal. Look for the cat — it appears in each version of the mural and has become something of a local symbol.