Roman Ruins and Fourvière

The Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste anchors the Old Town with a facade dominated by three massive, recessed portals filled with hundreds of small stone medallions. Construction dragged on for three centuries, beginning in the late twelfth…

The Montée du Gourguillon is a steep, narrow stone staircase rising sharply between high, windowless walls that date back to the late Middle Ages. It links the Saint-Georges riverfront to the heights of Fourvière. In fifteen ninety-five,…

The Odeon of Lyon sits carved into the hillside of Fourvière with its tiered stone seating facing the sunset. Built in the second century, this smaller theater held three thousand people for poetry readings and musical performances. During…

The Théâtre Gallo Romain of Lyon sits carved directly into the hillside of Fourvière, characterized by its wide, stone semicircular seating area that opens toward the horizon. Built during the reign of Augustus around fifteen before the…

The Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon-Fourvière sits embedded into the hillside, constructed almost entirely of raw, bush-hammered concrete. Architect Bernard Zehrfuss buried the building to preserve the view of the ancient theater right next…

The Basilica of Notre Dame of Fourvière crowns the hill with four angular towers and a central structure often compared to an overturned elephant. It was commissioned by the people of Lyon in eighteen seventy as a vow to the Virgin Mary if…

The Jardin du Rosaire clings to the steep hillside of Fourvière, defined by a narrow, winding path that drops through dense foliage from the basilica toward the old city below. This garden follows the route of the original pilgrimage…