third category, the tollerati, was added. On the eve of the revolution the city's population was 19% citizen, 30% permanent resident and 51% tollerati and other marginalized groups. There were only 41 citizen families, of which twelve were nobility and nine belonged to the patrician class.
Starting in 13th Century and in the first half of the 14th Century, long distance trade began to pick up from northern Italy via the Simplon Pass and through the Valais into the Champagne region. Sion became an important relay station on this route. The station at Sion included a Sust or warehouse that also provided additional animals to help haul wagons over the pass. Many local nobles and farmers were involved in animal husbandry to support the Sust and pastured their animals, during the summer, in pastures on the other side of the Rhone. The Sust's barns are stables were still in operation until the 19th Century. Along the Sionne river, there were mills, saw mills and other industries that needed water power. In addition there were many tanneries in the same area. In 1466, the smiths, bricklayers and stonemasons' guilds arose from an ecclesiastical fraternity. Those three guilds were followed by the butchers' guild in 1512, the bakers' guild in 1525, the tailors and drapers' guild in 1527 and in 1602 the guild of shoemakers and tanners. These guilds played a major economic role in Sion until the end of theAncien R�gime. The Inn of the White Cross opened in 1550 for merchants and wealthy travelers, followed in 1688 by the inn of the Golden Lion, which was built beside the town hall.
Very little is known about the early churches in Sion since written sources are meager before the 12th Century. The predecessor of the present cathedral, the church of Notre-Dame-du Glarier in the Palacio district served both as the bishop's church and the parish church in the 12th Century. It was destroyed in the 14th Century during one of the wars between the Bishop of Sion and the
