Lyon

According to the historian Dio Cassius, in 43 BC, the Roman Senate ordered the creation of a settlement for Roman refugees of war with the Allobroges. These refugees had been expelled from Vienne and were now encamped at the confluence of the Saône and Rhône rivers. The foundation was built on Fourvière hill and officially called Colonia Copia Felix Munatia, a name invoking prosperity and the blessing of the gods. The city became increasingly referred to as Lugdunum (and occasionally Lugudunum[20]).[21] The earliest translation of this Gaulish place-name as "Desired Mountain" is offered by the 9th-century Endlicher Glossary.[22] In contrast, some modern scholars have proposed a Gaulish hill-fort named Lug[o]dunon, after the Celtic god Lugus (cognate with Old Irish Lugh, Modern Irish Lú), and dúnon (hill-fort).

The Roman-era Theatre on the Fourvière Hill

The Romans recognised that Lugdunum's strategic location at the convergence of two navigable rivers made it a natural communications hub. The city became the starting point of main Roman roads in the area, and it quickly became the capital of the province, Gallia Lugdunensis. Two Emperors were born in this city: Claudius, whose speech is preserved in the Lyon Tablet in which he justifies the nomination of Gallic Senators, and Caracalla.

Early Christians in Lyon were martyred for their beliefs under the reigns of various Roman emperors, most notably Marcus Aurelius and Septimius Severus.[23] Local saints from this period include Blandina, Pothinus, and Epipodius, among others. The Greek Irenaeus was the second bishop of Lyon during the latter part of the second century.[24] To this day, the archbishop of Lyon is still referred to as "Primat des Gaules".[25]

Burgundians fleeing the destruction of Worms by the Huns in 437 were re-settled in eastern Gaul. In 443 the Romans established the Kingdom of the Burgundians, and Lugdunum became its capital in 461. In 843, under the Treaty of Verdun, Lyon went to the Holy Roman Emperor Lothair I. It later was made part of the Kingdom of Arles which was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire in 1033. Lyon did not come under French control until the 14th century.

Fernand Braudel remarked, "Historians of Lyon are not sufficiently aware of the bi-polarity between Paris and Lyon, which is a constant structure in French development...from the late Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution".[26] In the late 15th century, the fairs introduced by Italian merchants made Lyon the economic counting house of France. Even the Bourse (treasury), built in 1749, resembled a public bazaar where accounts were settled in the open air. When international banking moved to Genoa, then Amsterdam, Lyon remained the banking centre of France.

During the Renaissance, the city's development was driven by the silk trade, which strengthened its ties to Italy. Italian influence on Lyon's architecture is still visible among historic buildings.[27] In the late 1400s and 1500s Lyon was also a key centre of literary activity and book publishing, both of French writers (such as Maurice Scève, Antoine Heroet, and Louise Labé) and of Italians in exile (such as Luigi Alamanni and Gian Giorgio Trissino).

Lyon under siege in 1793

In 1572, Lyon was a scene of mass violence by Catholics against Protestant Huguenots in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Two centuries later, Lyon was again convulsed by violence during the French Revolution, when the citizenry rose up against the National Convention and supported the Girondins. The city was besieged by Revolutionary armies for over two months before it surrendered in October 1793. Many buildings were destroyed, especially around the Place Bellecour, and Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois and Joseph Fouché administered the execution of more than 2,000 people. The Convention ordered that its name be changed to "Liberated City", and a plaque was erected that proclaimed "Lyons made war on Liberty; Lyons no longer exists". A decade later, Napoleon ordered the reconstruction of all the buildings demolished during that period.

The convention was not the only target within Lyon during the French Revolution. After the Convention faded into history, the French Directory appeared and days after the September 4, 1797 Coup of 18 Fructidor, a Directory's commissioner was assassinated in Lyon.

The city became an important industrial town in the 19th century. In 1831 and 1834, the canuts (silk workers) of Lyon staged two major uprisings for better working conditions and pay. In 1862, the first of Lyon's extensive network of funicular railways began operation.

During World War II, Lyon was a centre for the occupying Nazi forces, including Klaus Barbie, the infamous "Butcher of Lyon". However, the city was also a stronghold of the French Resistance, the many secret passages known as traboules, enabled people to escape Gestapo raids. On 3 September 1944, Lyon was liberated by the 1st Free French Division and the Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur. The city is now home to a Resistance museum.[28][29]

Lyon has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa), bordering on an oceanic climate (Cfb) due to the higher average temperature being around 22 °C.[33] But in modified classifications such as that of Trewartha, France's third largest city has an oceanic climate (Do). The mean temperature in Lyon in the coldest month is 3.2 °C (37.8 °F) in January and in the warmest month in July is 22 °C (71.6 °F). Precipitation is adequate year-round, at an average of 830 mm (32.7 in), but the winter months are the driest. The highest recorded temperature was 40.5 °C (104.9 °F) on 13 August 2003 while the lowest recorded temperature was −24.6 °C (−12.3 °F) on 22 December 1938.[34]

Map of the City of Lyon divided into 9 arrondissements

Like Paris and Marseille, the commune (municipality) of Lyon is divided into a number of municipal arrondissements, each of which is identified by a number and has its own council and town hall. Five arrondissements were originally created in 1852, when three neighbouring communes (La Croix-Rousse, La Guillotière, and Vaise) were annexed by Lyon. Between 1867 and 1959, the third arrondissement (which originally covered the whole of the Left Bank of the Rhône) was split three times, creating a new arrondissement in each case. Then, in 1963, the commune of Saint-Rambert-l'Île-Barbe was annexed to Lyon's fifth arrondissement. A year later, in 1964, the fifth was split to create Lyon's 9th – and, to date, final – arrondissement. Within each arrondissement, the recognisable quartiers or neighbourhoods are:

• 1st arrondissement: Slopes of La Croix-Rousse, Terreaux, Martinière/St-Vincent
• 2nd arrondissement: Cordeliers, Bellecour, Ainay, Perrache, Confluence, Sainte-Blandine
• 3rd arrondissement: Guillotière (north), Préfecture, Part-Dieu, Villette, Dauphiné/Sans Souci, Montchat, Grange Blanche (north), Monplaisir (north)
• 4th arrondissement: Plateau de la Croix-Rousse, Serin
• 5th arrondissement: Vieux Lyon (Saint-Paul, Saint-Jean, Saint-Georges), Saint-Just, Saint-Irénée,[38] Fourvière, Point du Jour, Ménival, Battières, Champvert (south)
• 6th arrondissement: Brotteaux, Bellecombe, Parc de la Tête d'or, Cité Internationale
• 7th arrondissement: Guillotière (south), Jean Macé, Gerland
• 8th arrondissement: Monplaisir (south), Bachut, États-Unis, Grand Trou/Moulin à Vent, Grange Blanche (south), Laënnec, Mermoz, Monplaisir-la-Plaine
• 9th arrondissement: Vaise, Duchère, Rochecardon, St-Rambert-l'Île-Barbe, Gorge de Loup, Observance, Champvert (north)

Geographically, Lyon's two main rivers, the Saône and the Rhône, divide the arrondissements into three groups:

• To the west of the Saône, the fifth arrondissement covers the old city of Vieux Lyon, Fourvière hill and the plateau beyond. The 9th is immediately to the north, and stretches from Gorge de Loup, through Vaise to the neighbouring suburbs of Écully, Champagne-au-Mont-d'Or, Saint-Didier-au-Mont-d'Or, Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d'Or and Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or.
• Between the two rivers, on the Presqu'île, are the second, first, and fourth arrondissements. The second includes most of the city centre, Bellecour and Perrache railway station, and reaches as far as the confluence of the two rivers. The first is directly to the north of the second and covers part of the city centre (including the Hôtel de Ville) and the slopes of La Croix-Rousse. To the north of the Boulevard is the fourth arrondissement, which covers the Plateau of La Croix-Rousse, up to its boundary with the commune of Caluire-et-Cuire.
• To the east of the Rhône, are the third, sixth, seventh, and eighth arrondissements.

This is a list of mayors of the commune of Lyon since the end of the 19th century.

The lion, symbol of the city, on display at Maison des avocats

Map of the Metropolis of Lyon and its 59 communes (the commune of Lyon is in red)

Map showing the 14 electoral wards of the Metropolis of Lyon

Since 2015, the commune of Lyon (48 km² (19 sq mi) in land area) and 58 suburban communes have formed the Metropolis of Lyon (534 km² (206 sq mi) in land area), a directly elected metropolitan authority now in charge of most urban issues. The Metropolis of Lyon is the only metropolitan authority in France which is a territorial collectivity, on par with French communes and departments. Its metropolitan council was for the first time directly elected by universal suffrage in 2020 within 14 electoral wards, the only directly elected metropolitan council in France.

The 14 electoral wards are the following (see map for location):

The 6 wards with names starting with "Lyon" are all located within the commune of Lyon. The Villeurbanne ward is coterminous with the namesake commune. All other 7 wards each group various suburban communes.

The division of the Metropolis of Lyon in large electoral wards often grouping various communes and dividing the commune of Lyon into 6 wards was criticized by the suburban mayors, as it ended the rule of 'one commune, one metropolitan councilor'. The goal of this electoral division of the metropolis was to focus metropolitan elections more on metropolitan issues than parochial communal issues, and ensure the 'one person, one vote' rule be respected, by creating electoral wards of more homogeneous population sizes. Opponents said it diluted the voice of the small suburban communes, which are now part of large electoral wards and do not each possess a representative in the metropolitan council anymore.

The two first presidents of the Metropolis of Lyon's metropolitan council were chosen by indirectly elected metropolitan councilors. The current president since July 2020 was elected by new metropolitan councilors following their election by universal suffrage in March (1st round) and June (2nd round) 2020, the first direct election of a metropolitan council in France.

• The Roman ruins on the hillside near the Fourvière Basilica, with the Ancient Theatre of Fourvière, the Odeon of Lyon and the accompanying Gallo-Roman museum
• Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls – ruins of a Roman amphitheatre.

• Cathedral of St. John, a medieval church with architectural elements of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, also the principal religious structure in the city and the seat of the Archbishop of Lyon
• Basilica of St-Martin-d'Ainay, one of the rare surviving Romanesque basilica-style churches in Lyon
• Église Saint-Paul, Romanesque (12th and 13th century) and Gothic (15th–16th century) church
• Église Saint-Bonaventure, 14th- and 15th-century Gothic church
• Église Saint-Nizier, Gothic church from the 15th century, having a doorway carved in the 16th century by Philibert Delorme
• Vieux Lyon (English: Old Lyon) area, Medieval and Renaissance quarter of the town, with shops, dining and cobbled streets
• The many Renaissance hôtels particuliers of the Old Lyon quarter, such as the Hôtel de Bullioud, were also built by Philibert Delorme

• City Hall on the Place des Terreaux, built by architects Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Robert de Cotte
• Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon, fine arts museum housed in a former convent of the 17th century, including the Baroque chapelle Saint-Pierre
• Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon (17th and 18th century), historical hospital with a baroque chapel
• Temple du Change (17th and 18th century), former stock exchange of Lyon, Protestant temple since the 18th century
• Place Bellecour, one of the largest town squares in Europe
• Chapelle de la Trinité (1622), the first Baroque chapel built in Lyon, and part of the former École de la Trinité, now Collège-lycée Ampère
• Église Saint-Polycarpe (1665–1670), Classical church
• Église Saint-Just (16th to 18th century), Classical church
• Saint-Bruno des Chartreux (17th and 18th century), church, masterpiece of Baroque architecture
• Église Notre Dame Saint-Vincent (18th century), Neo-classical church

• Opéra Nouvel (1831), renovated in 1993 by Jean Nouvel
• Théâtre des Célestins (1877), designed by Gaspard André
• Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, large 19th-century basilica on the top of Fourvière Hill
• Tour métallique de Fourvière (1894)
• La Mouche Cattle Market and Abattoir (1914, 1928), designed by Tony Garnier
• Sainte Marie de La Tourette monastery (1960) designed by Le Corbusier
• Saint-Exupéry International Airport (formerly Satolas Airport), designed by Guillaume Gilbert
• Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupéry (1994) by Santiago Calatrava
• Palais des congrès de Lyon (1998), designed by Renzo Piano and a group of buildings for various functions
• Tour du Crédit Lyonnais
• Tour Oxygène
• Tour Incity

The Musée des Confluences

• Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon (Fine Arts Museum), main museum of the city and one of the larger art galleries in France. Housed in the Palais Saint Pierre, a former 17th-century convent, it displays a major collection of paintings by artists (including Tintoretto; Paolo Veronese; Nicolas Poussin; Rubens; Rembrandt; Zurbaran; Canaletto; Delacroix; Monet; Gauguin; Van Gogh; Cézanne; Matisse; Picasso; Francis Bacon...); collections of sculptures, drawings and printings, decorative arts, Roman and Greek antiquities; the second largest collection of Egyptian antiquities in France after that of the Louvre; and a medal cabinet of 50.000 medals and coins.
• The Gallo-Roman Museum displaying many valuable objects and artworks found on the site of Roman Lyon (Lugdunum) such as Circus Games Mosaic, Coligny calendar and the Taurobolic Altar
• Centre d'histoire de la résistance et de la déportation
• Musée des Confluences, new museum of sciences and anthropology, which opened its doors on 20 December 2014
• La Sucrière, contemporary art centre
• Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon houses the "Musée des Hospices Civils", a permanent exhibit tracing the history and practice of medicine from the Middle Ages to modern times
• Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs, decorative arts and textile museum, which is one of the world's larger textile collections with 2.5 million works
• Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, contemporary art museum
• Musée de L'imprimerie, printing museum
• Musée Gadagne, museum of the history of Lyon housed in a historic building in Vieux Lyon, which includes a large collection of marionettes
• Musée des Automates, museum of automated puppets in Vieux Lyon, open since 1991
• Musée Miniature & Cinéma, museum featuring miniature movie sets, movie props, and special effects[39]

The lake in the Parc de la Tête d'or

• Parc de la Tête d'or, aka Golden Head Park, in central Lyon is the largest urban park in France at 117 hectares (290 acres). Located in the 6th arrondissement, it features a large lake on which boating takes place during the summer months.
• Jardin botanique de Lyon (8 hectares (20 acres)), included in the Parc de la Tête d'Or, is a municipal botanical garden and is open weekdays without charge. The garden was established in 1857 as a successor to earlier botanical gardens dating to 1796, and now describes itself as France's largest municipal botanical garden.
• Parc de Gerland, in the south of the city (80 hectares (200 acres))
• Parc des hauteurs, in Fourvières
• Parc de Miribel-Jonage (2,200 hectares (5,400 acres))
• Parc de Lacroix-Laval (115 hectares (280 acres))
• Parc de Parilly (178 hectares (440 acres))

Jalousies and mantling are part of Lyon's architecture.

The historic site of Lyon was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1998. In its designation, UNESCO cited the "exceptional testimony to the continuity of urban settlement over more than two millennia on a site of great commercial and strategic significance."[32] The specific regions comprising the historic site include the Roman district and Fourvière, the Renaissance district (Vieux Lyon), the silk district (slopes of Croix-Rousse), and the Presqu'île, which features architecture from the 12th century to modern times.[47] Both Vieux Lyon and the slopes of Croix-Rousse are known for their narrow passageways (named traboules) that pass through buildings and link streets on either side. The first examples of traboules are thought to have been built in Lyon in the 4th century.[48] The traboules allowed the inhabitants to get from their homes to the Saône quickly and allowed the canuts on the Croix-Rousse hill to get from their workshops to the textile merchants at the foot of the hill.

Lyonnaise potatoes

Lyon has a long and chronicled culinary arts tradition. The noted food critic Curnonsky referred to the city as "the gastronomic capital of the world",[49] a claim repeated by later writers such as Bill Buford.[50] Renowned 3-star Michelin chefs such as Marie Bourgeois[51] and Eugénie Brazier[52] developed Lyonnaise cuisine into a national phenomenon favoured by the French elite; a tradition which Paul Bocuse later turned into a worldwide success.[53]

The bouchon is a traditional Lyonnais restaurant that serves local fare such as sausages, duck pâté or roast pork, along with local wines. Two of France's best known wine-growing regions are located near the city: the Beaujolais region to the north and the Côtes du Rhône region to the south. Another Lyon tradition is a type of brunch food called "mâchons", made of local charcuterie and usually accompanied by Beaujolais red wine. Mâchons were the customary meal of the canuts, the city's silk workers, who ate a late-morning meal after they finished their shifts in the factories.[54]

Other traditional local dishes include coq au vin; quenelle; gras double; salade lyonnaise (lettuce with bacon, croûtons and a poached egg); and the sausage-based rosette lyonnaise and andouillette. Popular local confections include marron glacé and coussin de Lyon. Cervelle de canut (literally, "silk worker's brains") is a cheese spread/dip made of a base of fromage blanc, seasoned with chopped herbs, shallots, salt, pepper, olive oil and vinegar.

More recently, the french tacos was invented in Lyon suburbs in the early 2000s and is now worldwide famous.

Parc Olympique Lyonnais

Lyon is home to the football club Olympique Lyonnais (OL), whose men's team plays in Ligue 1 and has won the championship of that competition seven times, all consecutively from 2002 to 2008).[55] OL played until December 2015 at the 43,000-seat Stade de Gerland, which also hosted matches of the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Since 2016, the team has played at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais, a 59,000-seat stadium located in the eastern suburb of Décines-Charpieu.[56] OL operates a women's team, Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, which competes in and dominates Division 1 Féminine. They won fourteen consecutive top-flight championships (2007–2020), and additionally claim the four titles won by the original incarnation of FC Lyon, a women's football club that merged into OL in 2004 (the current FC Lyon was founded in 2009). The OL women have also won the UEFA Women's Champions League eight times, including in five consecutive editions from 2016 to 2020. Lyon hosted the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup semi-finals as well as the Final on 7 July at Stade de Lyon.

Stade de Gerland

Lyon has a rugby union team, Lyon OU, in the Top 14, which moved into Stade de Gerland full-time in 2017–18. In addition, Lyon has a rugby league side called Lyon Villeurbanne that plays in the French rugby league championship. The club's home is the Stade Georges Lyvet in Villeurbanne.

Lyon is also home to the Lyon Hockey Club, an ice hockey team that competes in France's national ice hockey league. The Patinoire Charlemagne is the seat of Club des Sports de Glace de Lyon, the club of Olympic ice dancing champions Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, and world champions Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Shoenfelder.[57] Lyon-Villeurbanne also has a basketball team, ASVEL, that plays at the Astroballe arena.

Since 2000, Birdy Kids, a group of graffiti artists from the city, has decorated several random buildings and walls along the Lyon ring road. In 2012, the artist collective was chosen to represent the city as its cultural ambassadors.[58]

Lumière University

Jean Moulin University

• École Centrale de Lyon;
• École Normale Supérieure de Lyon
• EM Lyon (École de Management de Lyon);
• ECE Lyon (École de Commerce Européenne de Lyon);
• Institut d'études politiques de Lyon (Sciences Po Lyon);
• CPE Lyon;
• CNSMD (Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Lyon)
• ECAM Lyon (École Catholique d'Arts et Métiers de Lyon);
• EPITECH;
• EPITA;
• ENTPE (École Nationale des Travaux Publiques de l'État);
• ESME-Sudria;
• École des Beaux-Arts;
• E-Artsup;
• INSA Lyon (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon);
• Polytech Lyon;
• Institut supérieur européen de gestion group;
• ISARA (Institut Supérieur d'Agriculture Rhône Alpes);
• Institution des Chartreux;
• Institut polytechnique des sciences avancées;
• Université Claude Bernard (Lyon 1);
• Université Lumière (Lyon 2);
• Université Jean Moulin (Lyon 3);
• IAE (Institut d'Administration des Entreprises de Lyon);
• Institut Sup'Biotech de Paris;
• Catholic University of Lyon;
• ESDES Business School;
• IDRAC (International School of Management);
• Wesford Graduate Business School;
• IFAG (Business Management School);
• Institut supérieur européen de formation par l'action;
• Le Lycée du Parc;
• La Martinière Lyon;
• Web@cademie;
• CEESO (Centre Européen d'Enseignement Supérieur de l'Ostéopathie);
• Bellecour, Écoles D'Arts.

IPSA Lyon Campus

There are some international private schools in the Lyon area, including:

• Cité Scolaire Internationale de Lyon or the Lycée de Gerland;
  • Includes the Section Japonaises (リヨン・ジェルラン補習授業校 Riyon Jeruran Hoshū Jugyō Kō "Lyon Gerland Japanese Supplementary School"), which the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT) counts as a part-time Japanese supplementary school[64]
• Ombrosa;
• International School of Lyon in nearby Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon;
• Montessori School of Lyon.

Other Japanese supplementary schools:

• The Association Pour le Developpement de la Langue et de la Culture Japonaises (ADLCJ; リヨン補習授業校 Riyon Hoshū Jugyō Kō) is held in the Maison Berty Albrecht in Villeurbanne, near Lyon.[64] It was formed in 1987.[65] It serves Japanese expatriate children who wish to continue their Japanese education whilst abroad.