Vieux Lyon Renaissance Traboules

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 Maison des Avocats features a long, three-story gallery of tiered wooden balconies wrapped around an open courtyard. This building served as the meeting place for the lawyers of the sénéchaussée of Lyon during the sixteenth century.…

The Maison du Chamarier features a distinctive octagonal turret that houses a spiral stone staircase rising above the courtyard. Built in the late fifteenth century for the official who managed the finances of the Archbishop of Lyon, the…

La Longue Traboule stretches through four different buildings, connecting two parallel streets with a covered passageway that winds through private courtyards and stone staircases. Silk weavers once used these hidden tunnels to transport…

The Tour Rose stands out for its circular, pink-plastered stair tower rising inside the courtyard of the Maison du Crible. Built during the Renaissance, the tower provides the vertical link between the floors of this silk merchant's…

The Musee des arts de la marionnette occupies the upper floors of the Hotel de Gadagne, a Renaissance palace defined by its four-story facade of warm, golden stone and the rhythmic rows of mullioned windows. This building houses a massive…

The Temple du Change features a massive, clock-adorned facade that towers over the Place du Change. Merchants from all over Europe once gathered here to exchange currencies and negotiate trade deals during the Renaissance, back when Lyon…