It is an impressive traboule, a covered passage with entrances on the Place Colbert, Montée Saint-Sébastien and Rue Imbert-Colomès.

Built in 1840,[2] it is a fine example of the folk architecture of the canuts, related to the silk weaving industry, which deeply marked the neighborhood.

A plaque on the building reads: "In the Cour des Voraces, hive of silk work, canuts struggled for their lives and their dignity."

During the Second World War, traboules of Lyon were dark and secret places, little known to foreigners, and their configuration enabled resistance networks to escape the surveillance of the German occupiers.

In 1995, the Habitat et Humanisme Association led by Father Bernard Devers bought the place and launched the rehabilitation of the court that became a symbol of social housing.