Urban development and Architectural art of Lyon, France

Urban development has left an important place for the requalification of the banks of the two rivers, with the aim of reclaiming the banks of the Rhône and the Saône: completed, the development of the banks of the Rhône has made it possible to transform large car parks and other simple quays in a promenade made up of vegetated spaces, places of relaxation, fountains and gardens. The development of the banks of the Saône has also transformed them into a place of relaxation conducive to culture and reunion.

The major city projects initiated by Greater Lyon affect the municipal territory, such as the ongoing rehabilitation of the Duchère district and the renewal of the Vaise and Mermoz districts. The large Lyon Confluence urban project, underway between the Rhône and the Saône, must transform what was yesterday a site devoted to industry into a real extension of the city center beyond Perrache station. At the end of the first phase, 130,000 m 2 of housing, 120,000 m 2 of hotels, services, shops and 130,000 m 2offices must replace brownfields. By the end of the second phase, more than a million square meters should have been built. At the tip of the Peninsula, the futuristic-looking Confluences Museum was built. It opened December 20, 2014 and is served by a tram station T1, extended towards Debourg in the Gerland district (7 th arrondissement). The cost of this project (more than 330 million euros) is at the origin of a controversy.

More ad hoc projects have been carried out: Jacqueline Osty has been entrusted with the transformation of Place des Jacobins in the heart of the second arrondissement, a space that used to be very frequented by cars. The redevelopment includes wider sidewalks and an embellishment of the fountain and statues that sit in the also pedestrianized center. Reconverted after the departure of the civil hospices of Lyon, the Hôtel-Dieu gave way to a city of gastronomy, a luxury Intercontinental hotel in the central body of the building, shops specializing in tableware and decoration interior, as well as corporate offices. The multiple interior courtyards have been redeveloped into high places of luxury, like theavenue Montaigne in Paris. The challenge is to give Lyonnais public spaces between the private facilities of the project. A glass roof covering one of the interior courtyards as well as the restoration of the dome and its ceiling height of 58 meters are the strong architectural signals of this rehabilitation. The opening took place between the end of 2017 and the end of 2019.

Other projects in Greater Lyon, despite their distance from the center and located outside the municipal territory, contribute to the influence of the city-center: ongoing requalification of the Silk Square, straddling Villeurbanne and Vaulx-en-Velin, although for a long time neglected by the metropolis of Lyon, is today at the heart of a large-scale redevelopment and restructuring project, the end of which would not come before 2030. The creation of a leisure center, the extension of the real estate offer, the emergence of a tertiary center of European renown, the construction of 30,000 m 2 of hotels. The partially completed Lyon – Porte des Alpes business and commercial area in the town of Saint-Priest was launched in 1996. The aim of this project is to make the Porte des Alpes a real service center. The technology park, symbol of the project, is almost completed and should ultimately provide around 6,000 jobs. The Porte des Alpes is also the site of the “passive houses”. 31 in number, these houses are prototypes of ultra-ecological houses, intended for housing.

Post war
The history of Lyon since 1944 has not yet been studied in depth. It must be approached with caution; hindsight, synthetic analyzes and comprehensive works are still lacking for many aspects of his contemporary life. Staying as close as possible to the facts is therefore an imperative until the years and studies allow opinions and points of view to be objectified.

Urban and demographic changes
During the Thirty Glorious Years, the population of the city of Lyon increases appreciably from 442,000 to 527,000 inhabitants between 1946 and 1968, ie a 20% increase. The suburbs of the Lyon metropolitan area are growing from 348,000 to 595,000 inhabitants, ie a 70% increase. These figures underline the strong trend, visible in all the cities of France, of a strong urban sprawl. In Lyon, it occurs mainly in the east of the city, thus continuing a historical process. From the 1970s and 1980s, urban growth was visible especially at the limits of the agglomeration, the most central municipalities seeing their population stabilize. Finally, this development is accompanied by a drop in overall urban density,.

From large residential complexes are built in the periphery (Duchère, to welcome the returnees from Algeria, Mermoz, Rillieux…). Modernization led to a series of major works, such as the construction of a business district at Part-Dieu, the Fourvière motorway tunnel or the metro, inaugurated in 1978). Urban expansion also prompted the construction of a new town at L’Isle-d’Abeau and in 1975 a new airport at Colombier-Saugnieu named Satolas, replacing theBron airport and renamed inJune 2000, Saint-Exupéry airport.

These transformations are accompanied by a modification of socio-professional categories within the agglomeration. From the 1980s, Lyon, but also Villeurbanne, gathered more higher professions (executives, industrialists, liberal professions, etc.), while the suburbs, and more particularly those of the east, welcomed populations of workers, manual workers, proportionately larger employees.

Since the 1980s, demographic trends have changed. The center of the agglomeration (including Villeurbanne) saw its population increase, while the municipalities of the close suburbs lost inhabitants. During the last two censuses, the population of the city of Lyon increased from 415,500 inhabitants in 1990 to 445,400 in 1999, and reached 479,800 during the 2009 surveys.

Economic developments
At the end of the Second World War, Lyon was a city deeply marked by industry, whether traditional (metallurgy) or more innovative (chemistry and mechanical construction); it remained so until the 1960s. During the following decade, the economic structure of the agglomeration changed rapidly, to become a major French tertiary center.

The sectors that are declining the most are: textiles (and in particular silk), the manufacture of electrical components and the processing of metals. The chemical and automobile mechanics industries, on the other hand, manage to maintain a good level of activity. While the number of industrial establishments in Lyon declined little, the relative importance of industry in the overall working population fell considerably in the 1980s and 1990s.

In the 2000s, Lyon’s industrial sector was made up of four main sectors: chemicals and pharmaceuticals (with Arkema, Sanofi-Pasteur, BioMérieux, etc.), metallurgy and mechanical construction (with Renault Trucks), electricity (with Alstom and Areva), IT for Hewlett-Packard and Cegid software and the textile industry. To these sectors which give its character to Lyon’s industry, we must add the many construction, food and logistics companies. The Lyon economy has been boosted since 2005 by the five competitive clusters: Lyon Biopôle, Axelera, Lyon Urban Trucks, Lyon Numérique and Techtera.

The evolution of the textile sector Lyon
The reconversion of the majority of manufacturers in the rayon industry in the 1930s was only an illusory solution and this sector in turn collapsed during the Trente Glorieuses. Despite efforts to organize and support the sector by means of advisory and mutual aid structures, natural silk is, for its part, confined to a luxury market. Lyon, on the other hand, is developing know-how in the field of conservation, restoration and heritage enhancement of silk.

The end of the Factory
The second half of the 20 century saw the traditional structure of the Lyon factory disintegrate and disappear, despite numerous attempts to survive.

The decline of artificial silk
The adoption of artificial silk, rayon, during the shock of 1929 by the silk workers of Lyon is only a temporary remedy for the crisis. Indeed, this fiber is in strong competition with the appearance of nylon in the 1950s. However, this new material requires much heavier investments, which most textile houses cannot afford. At the same time, efforts to modernize production tools are woefully insufficient, with manufacturing times and volumes remaining lower than most other world textile production areas. La Fabrique cannot turn to the production of low-cost ready-to-wear lines.

This leads to a new wave of disappearance. Between 1964 and 1974, the number of houses fell by 55% and that of factories by 49%. The smallest houses were the first to disappear, but certain institutions also went bankrupt, such as the Gindre house in 1954 or the Dognin house in 1975.

Sector Organization
To resist the decline, several Lyon houses have joined forces to pool investments and better disseminate contacts and ideas. This “Group of High Novelty Creators”, born in 1955, includes eight companies including Brochier and Bianchini-Férier. This institution has had several successes and has enabled several houses to resist crises in the sector. The silk sector subsequently relied on several other organizations which helped it to survive and develop, including Unitex in 1974 (Lyon association for advice to textile companies), Inter-Soie France in 1991 (association bringing together Lyon silk players and organizing the Lyon silk market) or the international silk association.

Disintegration of the Fabrique
During this period, the workforce of the silk world literally melted away. In 14 years, between 1974 and 1988, the employees of the silk sector in the Lyon region went from 43,000 to 18,000. The number of looms increased from 23,000 in 1974 to 15,000 in 1981 and 5,750 in 1993.

Reorientation of the Lyon silky industry
The usual outlets escape the Fabrique, luxury using hardly any more silk and the competition on the price of ordinary articles becoming untenable. The last Lyon silk companies are therefore reorienting themselves towards technical textiles, catering and heritage activities.

The end of the traditional customers of the silk
The traditional clientele of the Fabrique that are the elites, ready to spend large fortunes in evening and ceremonial clothing and in the fitting out of their homes, is in crisis in the 1930s and tends to disappear in the years 1950 with the social transformations experienced by developed countries. The wave of democratization and the influence of American culture dealt a final blow to the orders of rich clothing in embroidered silk. Parisian fashion, a natural outlet and standard-bearer for Lyonnais productions around the world, is in severe crisis, with many Haute Couture houses closing and the rest surviving only thanks to their ready-to-wear lines.

Haute couture is turning away from silk
These houses are increasingly turning to other materials. The volumes of silk ordered become low; from 1957, the textile industry in the Lyon metropolitan area used only 800 tonnes of silk against more than 24,000 tonnes of artificial fibers. In 1992, the production of silk fabric fell to 375 tons.

However, even houses that are trying to specialize in luxury goods face many challenges. The old Bonnet house chose this reorientation in the 1970s by separating from factories producing mid-range fabrics and by buying companies with quality know-how. In the 1990s, it produced luxury items (clothing and scarves) under its own brands or for houses such as Dior, Chanel, Gianfranco Ferré or Calvin Klein. The leaders also try to exploit the historical dimension of the company by founding a museum. But it remains fragile and died in 2001.

Restoring and Heritage Conservation
Very early on, the Lyon authorities sought to establish grounds deposits. Originally, this business had a utilitarian purpose, to allow recognition of property, support the training of future designers and provide inspiration to homes. During the 20 century, this project takes a purely historical heritage and leadership within the Textile Museum. This now hosts collections from Lyon’s long silky history. Thus, the samples and drawings kept by the industrial tribunal were transferred to the museum in 1974 when the judicial body moved.

The museum of fabrics has a workshop for the restoration of old fabrics in 1985, partly financed by the direction of the museums of France. Built on the model of that of the Abegg-Stiftung in Riggisberg, it works in the restoration of public or private rooms.

The Tassinari & Chatel and Prelle manufactures maintain the tradition of silk upholstery, among other things for the restoration of period pieces. In the 1960s and 1970s, they benefited from the State’s desire to carry out a vast restoration plan for the furnishings of the royal castles. This restoration work is coupled with archaeological research carried out by specialists from the two houses to find the colors, weavings and patterns identical to the originals. This first book opens the doors to other catering companies abroad. Thus, the German government entrusted them with the restoration of several castles including those of Brühl orNymphenburg.

Technical textiles
A number of companies are leaving the silk industry to survive, entering the market for high added value technical textiles. In 1987, the four main companies in the Lyon region in this sector were Porcher, Brochier, Hexel-Genin and DMC. This strategy has met with some success. For example, the production of fiberglass fabrics increased from 13,500 tons in 1981 to 30,000 in 1988.

Nowadays
It remains the 20I century in Lyon very few silk manufacturers, mainly positioned in the market restricted the clothing and luxury furnishings.

The Bianchini-Férier or Bucol houses work for haute couture. Bucol (a company founded in 1928) has managed to survive by devoting itself solely to high novelty thanks to a solid network within Parisian Haute Couture. It thus joined forces with Hubert de Givenchy in 1985 for the production of “simple or fashioned crepe, sculpted or satin-striped muslin, multicolored flowers thrown in seedlings or in large prints, coordinated with one another or harmonized with polka dots, stripes or geometric patterns”. The same house joined forces with several contemporary artists in the 1980s for the creation of woven paintings. Yaacov Agam,Pierre Alechinsky, Paul Delvaux, Jean Dewasne, Hans Hartung, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Roberto Matta took part. Acquired by the Hermès group, the Bucol house produced its printed silk squares for it. She also manufactures for Dior, Balmain or Chanel.

The Tassinari & Chatel house, which was taken over by the fabric publisher Lelièvre, works mainly for the luxury hotel industry, the states or very wealthy individuals. Maison Prelle follows this positioning, retaining sufficient knowledge to continue working on the restoration of old pieces.

Urban history of Lyon
The urban history of Lyon makes it possible to retrace the forms taken by human occupation of the site during the history of the city.

Developed by the Romans on the right bank of the Saône, Lugdunum spreads rapidly and includes the Gallic town of Condate located at the foot of the Croix-Rousse. As the city spreads, it spills over onto the island of Canabae (particularly craft and commercial districts) and onto Fourvière hill (administrative and religious center). This summit establishment is only possible in a second phase, thanks to the mastery of hydraulic techniques allowing the Gier aqueduct to bring water into the citadel. The end of the Western Roman Empire put an end to this town planning: Lyon narrowed down until it was no more than a small town concentrated on the banks of the Saône, around churches and cemeteries.

From this linear concentration between the Saône and the hill is gradually born the town planning of the traboules, characteristic of Lyon. It is the bishops and archbishops who raise Lyon: anxious to show the religious feeling, they build and restore the future cathedral, enclose it, endow it with a scriptorium. At the same time, the abbeys are developing (Ainay, Île Barbe, Saint-Pierre). The city developed during the Carolingian renaissance, then vegetated again.

Its privileged location as a confluence and a border town has once again earned it a subject of interest and even covetousness from the great powers of the central Middle Ages (king of France, Germanic emperor and pope), as well as from local lords. (Forez and Beaujeu). The city is therefore fortified around religious buildings, mainly the cathedral which is completely rebuilt, but also in Saint-Just or Ainay. Bridges are also starting to cross the Saône. Crossing the Rhône is also attempted, but the successive wooden bridges are destroyed by floods on several occasions, until the establishment of a stone bridge much later.

The integration in France is painful at first; then the royal favor, to the early Renaissance (fairs, silk), helps to develop the city, so population growth is very strong at the 16 century it first densified on the peninsula and the Old Lyon, then overflows, mainly in the direction of Croix-Rousse. Royal projects under absolutism aim to solemnly organize the central space of the peninsula: avenues and squares are created and decorated, the south of the peninsula is definitively cleaned up and serviced. The city, which reached a population of 150,000 on the eve of the Revolution, is very strongly affected by the revolutionary troubles, and is recovering only slowly.

It is the second golden age of silk which is the source of Lyon’s growth: Croix-Rousse is developing and, above all, the left bank of the Rhône, finally drained, sanitized and dammed, is crisscrossed with streets and of buildings. The railway was established in Perrache then on the left bank. Growth, spontaneous enough to start, is increasingly framed in the late 19 and early 20 century, with major development operations of the Peninsula, theories of the working class neighborhood of Tony Garnier, urban renovations undertaken or planned in the oldest districts. These renovations, which continued at the beginning of the post-war period, were sometimes excessive, aimed at destroying an old heritage and replacing it with “functional” districts.

An awareness of the heritage value of the old districts characterized the end of the 20 century, reinforced by inclusion in the World Heritage of the Old Lyon and the peninsula. At the same time, town planning was taken over by the local authority, and mainly by the inter-municipal structure which took over the broadest prerogatives as a department in 2015, the metropolis of Lyon.

During Antiquity
In Gallo-Roman times, the current city of Lyon is divided into three distinct districts: The first is the Roman city of Lugdunum, the second is the Gallic suburb of Condate, corresponding to the first slopes of the Croix-Rousse; the third is the island or peninsula occupying the site of the II arrondissement current.

The Roman city
The Roman city of Lugdunum was founded in 43 BC. AD by Lucius Munatius Plancus. In its beginnings, the Roman city was located above all on the right bank of the Saône, at the foot of the hill, on the site of the current Vieux Lyon district. The reason is simple: the first aqueducts supplying the hill of Fourvière, mounts of Gold, Yzeron and Brévenne, only barely cross the threshold of Trion, and a fortiori, do not reach the top of the hill. “The highest part was, so to speak, not inhabited at that time”.

In 65, Lugdunum was the victim of a terrible fire. Seneca specifies: “Quite often we have seen cities damaged by fire, but never so much that there remains some vestige of what they were before… After that, who would believe that so many palaces capable of embellishing several cities? may have vanished overnight… Lyon, which we used to show in Gaul as one of its most beautiful ornaments, is now being sought and no longer found”. The Lyon historian André Steyert estimated, in 1895, that the author used hyperbole and rhetorical exaggerations:”The fire spread in the lower town, spread over the sides of the hill, but did not reach the highest part”. The excavations of the upper town did not show any trace of fire in the stratigraphic layers, which would corroborate the hypothesis according to which only the lower parts of the city were affected.

After the fire and the reconstruction of the city, the culmination of the Gier aqueduct site, in which the siphon technology is sufficiently developed for the water to reach the current site of La Sarra, allows to configure differently the Roman city, which is built at the top of the hill of Fourvière, including the current basilica, the cemetery of Loyasse, the park of the Heights, the sanctuary of Cybele, etc. Lugdunum reached its peak at this time (under the Antonines, between 96 and 192 approximately): it then had between 50,000 and 80,000 inhabitants. The Saône is then the major cut in the area of Lyon, separating the city of the patricians (Fourvière and Vieux Lyon) from that of the people (Condate and Canabae).

The upper town
The existence of an enclosure encircling the upper town is not attested. Its erection remained a privilege granted to a city by the Roman emperor, a phenomenon rather rare in Gaul. The archaeological contribution is reduced: in 1957, works to the east of the Place de l’Abbé-Larue brought to light a wall element and the base of a tower, and in 1968, in the northern part of this place, near the rue des Farges, the remains of an ancient rectilinear wall, 1.80 m wide and 41 m long, have been revealed. Amable Audin interprets these remains as being those of the Roman enclosure: “The cardo ascends to the enclosure wall that. However, no epigraph or no text corroborates this hypothesis and it may just as well be a retaining wall.

The forum, the center of public life, was located under the current esplanade located in front of the Notre-Dame de Fourvière basilica. It was surrounded by the Capitoline Temple, on the site of the current basilica; the curia, place of municipal deliberations, and the basilica, that of judicial deliberations, whose locations are not known with exactitude; finally, the imperial palace, which would have been located at the northeast end of the plateau (north of the basilica, near the metal telecommunications tower) according to archaeologists.

The urban structure of this set is in accordance with what is done elsewhere in the Empire: orthogonal streets oriented according to the cardinal points, around a cardo and a decumanus. Several current streets have kept the exact layout of the Roman road on the place of which they are built: this is particularly the case of rue Roger-Radisson, rue Cléber, and Montée de Fourvière. According to Amable Audin, the decumanus can be identified with the current rue Cléber; recent excavations tend rather to show that it concerns the current rue Roger-Radisson.

The track crosses the plateau in a diagonal 12 m widethe paving of which is made up of large blocks of remarkably assembled granite. This street leads, to the north-west of the city, to a temple, identified by the excavations of the Clos du Verbe Incarné, as the municipal shrine of the imperial cult of Lugdunum where the podium of the temple of Jupiter is discovered. To the south of the decumanus, the theater’s capacity increased from 4,500 to 10,700 seats under Emperor Hadrian. Around 160, an odeon of 3,000 seats was added to the theater, devoted to music.

The circus would have been located, according to Amable Audin, in the Trion ditch, sufficiently flat to house this structure, probably built of wood given the absence of any vestige. The proximity of the necropolises reinforces this supposition, as the games of the circus and death are often linked in ancient Rome. The threshold of Trion is also the place where the four aqueducts of Lyon passed: three of them (in chronological order, Monts d’Or, Yzeron and Brévenne) came from the west, crossed the threshold and flowed into reservoirs located nearby (Minimes). The fourth, that of Gier, came from the south (hill of Sainte-Foy), crossed the threshold of Sion to go up towards Fourvière, where the main reservoir of the city was built.

The town of Condate
The town of Condate took its name from the Latin meaning confluence. This town was the “native” part of ancient Lyon. As such, it is much older than Lugdunum, and excavations have helped make it traces the origins to the IX or VIII century BC. AD. However, some studies dispute the need for an earlier settlement on the Condate.

Besides the presence (possible and still uncertain) of the first confluence of the Rhône and the Saône nearby, the district of Condate presented another topographical difference with the current city. The works on Terme Street lowered the cliff overlooking Sathonay Square by about nine meters; previously, it was about fifteen meters high. The presence of a bridge or ford crossing the Saône is still not proven, even if it is possible.

The district concentrated several Gallo-Roman facilities, the most famous being the Amphitheater of the Three Gauls, inaugurated in the year 12 before Jesus Christ. The location of the latter has been the subject of multiple hypotheses having placed it in Saint-Jean, Ainay or instead of the theater. The definite identification of the amphitheater with the ruins located rue des Tables-Claudiennes was only made in 1958. These ruins had been identified since 1820, but the presence of the euripe had wrongly led François Artaud to believe that ‘it was a flood device intended to organize naumachia. On the other hand, the amphitheater, dug to the north in the hill south was built on an artificial high bank of more than twenty meters, which had to rely on the terrace with a cliff above mentioned was the late.

The baths were located on the current site Sathonay, without knowing if it was a public facility or schedule a rich home. The district was centered around the altar of the imperial cult, surrounded by four high columns surmounted by statues representing military victories. The densest part of this Gallic town was located between the current rue du Jardin des Plantes and Constantine. There is no reason to believe that this district was supplied with drinking water by one of the four aqueducts leading to Fourvière. But there is no evidence the existence of an aqueduct said “of Cordieu”, coming from the Dombes, as suggested by Camille Germain de Montauzan.

Handicrafts are developed in this district: excavations at Grande-Côte and Saint-Vincent have uncovered at least seven potters’ workshops, as well as one of glassmaking.

From the middle of the III century, this area is slowly abandoned. The fragments found in the rise of the Great Coast during excavations from 1985 suggest the existence of a wall enclosing the village, assembled III century great device, and whose stones originates probably either the amphitheater, or possibly the sanctuary, both having fallen into disuse at that time.

Canabae Island
Island Canabae, corresponding roughly to the central part of the current peninsula, was a residential and commercial area, probably built in the I century, although the term appears only at II century. It was separated into two parts: the north of the current rue Sainte-Hélène was more artisanal and commercial, the south more residential. It is in this neighborhood were the main wine warehouses, wheat and oil for the local population or to trade.

In the Middle Ages

The tightening of the city
With the decline of the Roman Empire, precipitated by the barbarian invasions, Lyon, from the great metropolis of exchange that it was, once again became a small town. The city is reduced, from the collapse of the Roman Empire, to the two banks of the Saône. Thus, many parts of the Roman city are emptied of their inhabitants, in particular Fourvière, or the districts around the current places of the Stock Exchange, the Republic or the Terreaux. Human occupation continues, however, in the area of Place des Célestins and Saint-Nizier Church. Urban space is becoming rural; the main function of the preserved roads is to serve agricultural areas, mainly vineyards on the Fourvière hill, but also to keep access to the ruins, used as stone quarries.

One of the main reasons for the desertion of the high points is the rapid dysfunction of the Roman aqueducts. Indeed, those of Lyon are particularly technical, all comprising siphons. The latter are made of lead, a material highly prized by looters. The disappearance of the Roman legal framework lifts the very severe prohibitions placed on the protection of structures intended for the supply of drinking water. The Saracen invasion of 725 completed the destruction of these works.

Refocusing on religious buildings

The pomerium is therefore reduced around the poles formed by the churches and especially by the adjoining cemeteries. The city of the High Middle Ages is thus reduced, from North to South, from Saint-Paul to Saint-Georges, and in depth to a few hundred meters at most from the Saône. Félix Benoît dates from this time the appearance of what will become the characteristic form of Lyon town planning, the traboule.. Indeed, the buildings stretch as far as possible parallel to the Saône, access to the latter being obstructed for all the inhabitants not directly overlooking the river. The densification intervenes later in the Middle Ages: behind each building giving on the way, another is built, giving on the courtyard. It can only be accessed through the passage. The cross streets being very few, we ended up connecting the two streets through the courtyard, which offered the inhabitants a path that compensated for this rarity.

The city of the IX century is reduced to ecclesiastical institutions and their dependencies. Furthermore, not only is the central space much smaller, but it is poorly urbanized. The tenures of the two great ecclesiastical owners of downtown (cathedral chapter and parish St. Paul) are occupied respectively at sixty and fifty per cent at the beginning of IX century. At that date, the total number of tenures in the city was 1,144. It is therefore possible, by extrapolating the demographic data of the time, to estimate the Lyon population of this century at only 1,500 inhabitants, of whom approximately 800 to 1,000 lay people.

In 840, a landslide swept away the Roman forum and dispersed its remains in the current Rosary Garden, under the Fourvière basilica. The low growth begins to XI century, before widen between 1180 and 1230, after which the city stagnated until the 16 century.

Another of the tightening of the city is the loss of political influence: while Lyon, the capital of Burgundy, still radiates in all directions, the Lyonnais of the central Middle Ages only extends to the west. To the north, past the current Boulevard de la Croix-Rousse, begins La Bresse; to the east, the left bank of the Rhône is located in Dauphiné. The city of Lyon is a border town, whose urban influence is hampered.

The urban structure in the Central Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages as in the Renaissance, the Saône is the real major axis of the city. Commercial, artisanal artery, source of water and hydraulic energy, place of entertainment, it is bordered by strikes which are gradually developed and paved. On the contrary, the Rhône, a river with a violent and unpredictable course, remains almost untouched by development. Two distinct districts develop on the right bank of the Saône. The first, located on the banks of the Saône, corresponds to the current Old Lyon. It is surrounded by a wall, in which the entrance to the city is to the south (by the Saint-Georges gate) and to the north by that of Bourgneuf. Between 1180 and 1230, at the time when construction of the current primacy began, the city experienced strong demographic growth. The many additional inhabitants are housed in housing estates that the archbishops set up mainly on the right bank of the Saône between Saint-Jean and Saint-Paul and on the peninsula between rue Mercière and Saint-Pierre abbey.

In the 13 century, the population of the city grows frankly. This can be seen in several indirect indications, the written sources not allowing to quantify the phenomenon. In the first place, the extension of urban buildings largely exceeds the necessities of a simple natural increase of the inhabitants of the city. In addition, the number of hospitals increased sharply, from five to twelve over the century. Another indication of the increase in population is the establishment of a large number of convents of new orders which accompany the limits of urbanization (especially for the mendicant orders). Finally, and even if its construction is subject to many uncertainties, the bridge over the Rhône is undoubtedly a development factor. Furthermore, the Saône bridge and the fortifications associated with it are also the marker of a new development.

However, at the time of the attachment of the city to the Kingdom of France (1312), Lyon would have been only a small agglomeration of 3,300 fires, as stated in the Avisamenta intended to quantify the repairs due by the king. to the archbishop for the depredations committed during the siege of Lyon. The document should however be considered with caution: it is very biased because it seeks to minimize these repairs. In addition, it follows and responds to another document, emanating from the archbishop, which on the contrary maximizes the wrongs suffered by the city.

The urbanization of Lyon during the central Middle Ages responds to a certain logic, even if it does not appear at first glance. Following the example of what was done in Florence a few years later under the leadership of Arnolfo di Cambio, for Lyon it was a question of constituting a relatively regular, planned urban fabric, with plots of fairly similar sizes (although we will see that a progressive lengthening of the plots takes place). The urban fabric established around 1230 hardly changed for three centuries thereafter. On the other hand, inside this fixed frame, a densification of the frame is noticeable.

Downtown: the current Vieux Lyon
At the time when work on the new Saint-Jean cathedral began, Archbishop Guichard de Pontigny had the district fortified, which included, in addition to the cathedral, the churches of Saint-Étienne and Sainte-Croix, as well as the current choir school. The cathedral cloister, a quadrangle of about two hundred meters on the side, is surrounded by a wall more than two meters thick to protect itself from attacks such as those carried out by the Count of Forez Guigues II in 1162.

This wall is lined with an enclosure which includes the church of Saint-Paul to the north (but not the castle of Pierre Scize), to the south Saint-Georges, and which climbs the slopes of Fourvière by crossing the rise of Gourguillon, passing under the Antiquaille terrace and through the Rosary garden. It is partly based on structural elements dating from Antiquity. The creation of a continuous building throughout Old Lyon dates from the years 1180-1230. It is mainly the result of the policy of the archbishop or of the cathedral chapter.

This district is, as today, divided into three towns of unequal size, each built around a church or a group of churches: the smallest, to the south, is the town of Saint-Georges, around its church. To the north, around the eponymous church, the Saint-Paul district is being built. Finally, in the center, the Saint-Jean district was built around the cathedral group, and in particular around the primatiale, whose construction lasted from 1170 until around 1435.

The village of Trion

The second district of the right bank is located on the hill, at the level of the threshold of Trion, and includes the districts of Saint-Just and Saint-Irénée, also surrounded by a wall. Two small elements stand out visually, but do not then lead to any nucleus of population: the top of the Fourvière hill, with the Saint-Thomas chapel, on the one hand, and on the other hand the castle of Pierre Scize. No archaeological evidence can attest to the presence of an enclosure. On the other hand, the medieval sources evoke a “castle of Saint-Just”. This enclosure has in any case either been justified by increasing urbanization of the sector, or allowed this urbanization, which is undeniable.

The peninsula

The third district of Lyon is the peninsula, barred to the north by a fence (“clausura”) pierced by a door (Saint-Marcel). This enclosure was built mainly by Archbishop John of Canterbury at the end of the XII century. This fence was replaced after the events of 1269-1270: the rampart known as the “terreaux wall” was then built to protect the city from assaults from the north but also to protect the citizens from the appetites of the chapter. This wall, whose durability was uncertain, is reinforced by the arrival of the guardianimposed by the King of France, who, in the interest of his master, turns the population against the ecclesiastical authorities. This wall of Terreaux being located further south than the pre-existing enclosure, the surrounding area of the city is reduced, an extremely rare case in the Middle Ages; despite this, the perception of the city limits remained, and this for centuries, attached to the former wall of Jean Belles-mains.

It is structured around the church of Notre-Dame de la Platière, which Leidrade names in his chronicles “church of Sainte-Marie”. The Place de la Platière (platea, plateria) faces that of the Customs or Saônerie (Saoneria, Salneria), located on the right bank, on the other side of the bridge (today Pont au Change). As in ancient Lugdunum, the city is cut between the religious quarter, center of power, on the right bank of the river, and the peninsula, market and popular. The urbanization of the peninsula is partly due to ecclesiastical actions (archbishop, chapters and especially the Saint-Pierre and Ainay abbeys), but also to the bourgeoisie, to which the names of subsequent streets bear witness: the names street “Ponce Olard”, “de Fuers”, ” Grôlée ” show that the large bourgeois families, failing to pierce the streets themselves, develop the land.

Urbanization, sheltered by the fence which bars the peninsula to the north and separates it from the slopes of Croix-Rousse, developed in five stages: first, around 1180, a first subdivision was created in south of the Saint-Nizier church, including rue Poulailleries, du Bois and Grenette, which serve narrow plots (five meters wide on average), fairly deep (about twenty meters) but not crossing. In a second step, probably around 1183-1185, at the same time as the first bridge over the Rhône was laid, the piercing, on the one hand of the rue Mercière, on the other hand, rue Ferrandière, rue de la Boisserie,

Bonneveaux and rue du Palais-Grillet, leads to the creation, on the sides of the latter, of somewhat larger subdivisions (6 × 25 meters for the plots facing the street Mercière). The next stage, from 1190 and until around 1200, is that of the outlet of the streets on the Rhône, in particular the rue du Puits-Pelu and that de la Boisserie. If the subdivisions created along the first are substantially equivalent to those of the previous phases, those adjoining rue de la Boisserie are wider (seven meters) and above all much deeper (approximately forty meters). Then, around 1220-1230, comes the phase of urbanization of the space between rue Mercière, Bourgchanin and rue du Port-du-Temple to the south and west, the Rhône to the east and the pre-existing urbanization in the north. These housing estates, five to seven meters wide, measure up to fifty meters deep.

Finally, a phase of completion of the grid takes place which was thus created over half a century; The streets of Etableries, Quatre-Chapeaux, Grenouille and Alms are pierced. The average grid of the islets is a square with a side of about forty meters. The secondary streets then lead to the main ones through porches created under the riverside houses. The average grid of the islets is a square with a side of about forty meters. The secondary streets then lead to the main ones through porches created under the riverside houses. The average grid of the islets is a square with a side of about forty meters. The secondary streets then lead to the main ones through porches created under the riverside houses..

Only the banks of watercourses are still relatively untouched by urbanization. Indeed, in addition to the rights of way linked to them, these banks are the legal property of the lord. The golden bull defines the exclusive property (“investizon”) of any building located “on the banks of the rivers” as being that of the lord, count or archbishop. These banks are surveyed at the beginning of 13 century, with many building permits, rules of unsuitability or demolition deemed troublesome buildings.

City limits
The limit of the extension of urbanization during 13 century is made initially by the knight orders (the Templars moved to the current location of Célestins Theater), then in a second time, more systematically, by the convents of the mendicant orders which then established themselves in Lyon. The Jacobins (Dominicans) set up in 1218-1219 Montée du Gourguillon, then around 1231-1232 in the district that bears their name, in a convent of about four hectares. The Cordeliers (Franciscans) arrived in 1220 and occupied a space of about 1.4 hectares on the site of the current eponymous district. The following settlements were necessarily further north, the place having already been taken to the south: the Carmelites arrived in 1291, the Poor Clares from the Desert before 1296, and finally the Augustins in 1301.

In 1346, while France was in the middle of the Hundred Years War, a project for a new enclosure was launched; it would have measured about 3,500 meters and, this time, would have passed at the top of the hills overlooking the city of the time. The planned enclosure passed approximately to the site of the current Boulevard de la Croix-Rousse; on the right bank of the Saône, it passed through the castle of Pierre-Scize, contained the current cemetery of Loyasse as well as the town of Trion, and joined the Saône at roughly the same place as the current wall of Fourvière, in the middle of the Fulchiron quay.

This imposing work was too ambitious for a city of this size, which had to give up building it entirely for lack of funding,black plague which struck Lyon in 1351. Only 1,600 meters, that is to say about 45% of the project, were built. To the north, the only work carried out is the ditch of Croix-Rousse, which is reused in the construction of the walls of 1512. On the hill of Fourvière, the wall is built but, instead of encompassing the village of Trion, it relies on the old wall of it to isolate the village from the city walls. This exclusion of Saint-Just and Saint-Irénée from the rest of the city was very badly experienced by the ecclesiastical authorities, well established in these districts, and who also financed between a sixth and a third of the project.

The crossings of rivers
The Middle Ages are also the time of the construction of bridges. If the Saône, a river with a regular and relatively peaceful regime, has been crossed since Antiquity on footbridges and bridges – the main crossing point, however, remaining the bridge located on the site of the current Bonaparte bridge – it does not The same is not true of the crossing of the Rhône: the river, which has a quasi-level regime, is subject to violent floods; the various wooden bridges built cannot resist it. Moreover, fluctuations in the river are rapidly changing the banks, which are not fixed before the 18 century: crémentsare created on the right bank of the Rhône and gradually enlarge the peninsula, while the left bank is eroded and traversed by lones. The two banks of the Saône, for their part, are deposit zones. Thus, to the right of Saint-Nizier, the peninsula widens by more than one hundred meters.

The installation of a stone bridge is only possible as long as Archbishop Pierre of Savoy entrusts its construction to the Cistercians of Hautecombe abbey then of Chassagne.

From the Renaissance to the Revolution

Demographic and spatial growth of the city
In the middle of the 15 century, Lyon is one of the most populated cities in Europe. It then had thirty-six districts, each of which had a commercial specialty. The economic prosperity of the city, due in particular to the four annual fairs granted by Louis XI, the installation of numerous Italian bankers, the development of the printing press and the launch of the silk industry, led to a significant demographic increase.

From the demographic trough of the years 1430-1440, the population of Lyon grew steadily. Arthur Kleinclausz estimated that the city contains 25 000 inhabitants in the middle of the 15 century. Growth was strong then, to reach approximately 35 000 1520 and between 60 000 and 75 000 in the middle of the 16 century. This increase is mainly due to immigration from Savoy, Dauphiné and Burgundy. The city extends especially towards the Croix-Rousse, thanks to the new wall built under François I.

At the foot of the slopes of Fourvière, the city enclosed by the canons’ cloisters was forcibly opened by the Baron des Adrets, who knocked down their walls in 1562. The Protestant captain is not satisfied with destroying this cloister: he also destroys the fortifications of the castle of Saint-Just, and he traces the current rise of Chemin-Neuf between the two districts. On the peninsula, several cemeteries of convents or churches were transformed into places: that of the Jacobins in 1562 (place des Jacobins), of the Cordeliers in 1567 or of the Saint-Nizier church in 1593.

The current place Bellecouris a military ground which is several times redeveloped. At the foot of the slopes of Croix-Rousse, the ancient terreaux ditch has been filled in, to allow urban expansion at the bottom of hill. Transformations are also taking place in the location of urban activities. The main cattle market, located until 1490 rue Juiverie, in the heart of the then expanding business district, was moved away towards Place de la Croix-de-Colle. Likewise, the pig market was moved away in 1513 from the center to be installed in the ditches of the Lanterne. These changes, and others, reflect a municipal desire to push polluting activities to the outskirts, to allow the city center to focus on its residential function and to limit the causes of disease.

It is difficult to have a general view of the morphology of the houses of this period, very few of them having been preserved. As a general rule, they are narrow, between five and six meters, and deep, up to twenty meters; they generally have two floors. It can be connected to a second building at the back, joined to the first by galleries on each floor, themselves accessible by a spiral staircase. Alongside these common mansions, many lavish homes are built from the 15 century as the home of the Rose, Haberdasher Street, owned by the Ennemond adviser Syvrieu then by Jacques Heart. But it is in the 16th century that the largest mansions with Renaissance elements were built.

A large area Renaissance characteristics forms
Driven by sustained enrichment, the city is constantly developing and rebuilding itself. Its general morphology does not move much; it does not spread out, it becomes denser. The gardens are gradually reduced, the houses are rebuilt on the spot with a few more floors. But the south of the peninsula as well as the slopes of the hills are not urbanizing. The consulate, confronted with the transformation of the functions and the socio-economic importance of their city, tries to adapt a town planning still typically medieval at the beginning of this period (narrow streets, few public places, homogeneous districts between them) to new functions. During the 150 years of the Lyon Renaissance, the elites of the city manage to make it evolve widely; neighborhoods become individual and specialize, squares appear, important communication routes are developed.

Morphology of civil buildings
The rise in the number of inhabitants per house is concomitant with the economic boom starting in 1460. The right bank of the Saône, in particular, begins a movement of destruction of old buildings to rebuild higher and richer. The areas still cultivated disappear at this time, and during the 16 century, all the dwellings likely to be raised, are it. Until the 1500s, the architectures are of Gothic inspiration, to evolve then in a confused mixture where all kinds of styles intermingle. The wealth of the city allows the builders to renew the Gothic art of the buildings, without the Renaissance style managing to impose itself. It is from this intense densification that the traboules are born, private roads becoming by the force of things semi-public roads, but with an always ambiguous status, which the pedestrians take, forced by the narrowness of the ways and their congestion to find passages. different.

One of the astonishing peculiarities of Lyon’s town planning of this period is that, despite the Italian architectural influence and the easy supply of water, no monumental fountain was built. The only water points available are wells. Similarly, the urban decor is very limited: some statues were erected at that time, it was not until the great works of the 17 century to see the creation of the first decorative building a pyramid erected Place des Cordeliers in 1609 in honor of the King and the Trinity.

The districts of the city
At the end of the 15 century, the two most densely populated parts are the right bank of the Saône, on the peninsula, one urban and middle-class corresponding to the Haberdasher Street (via mercatoria) of the time, which ran from the bridge over the Saône to the one over the Rhône, in a long transverse line. Corporations, trades and foreign nations are strongly grouped together in districts or streets, a sign of a solid organization of the Lyon social body.

Saint-Georges
During the Renaissance, the Saint-Georges district was a poor district, populated by affaneurs, fishermen, masons, weavers and reveyrans (boat builders). This district, which never attracts the notables, and however inhabited by the Bellièvre (Pomponne de Bellièvre and his family) and the Commandery of the Order of Malta.

At the end of the 15 century, the St. George church is restored. In 1492, the hotel of the Commandery of the Order of Malta was built not far by Humbert de Beauvoir and he took the opportunity to restore the Saint-Georges church. He had the end of the choir redone and embellished the whole of building. He affixed his arms in the church as well as those of Order.

Saint-Jean
Around the Palais de Roanne and the rue du Palais, the population is mainly made up of haberdashery, shovelers, apothecaries, notaries, money changers and doctors of law. This district, with the rise of royal power over the city represented by the guardian, pushes the poorer inhabitants to the south. It is around the canonical quarter, from the Porte Froc to the north, passing through the rue de la Bombarde, le Gourguillon that we find poor people, affaneurs, fishermen, Reverans. During the Renaissance, when the Château de Pierre-Scize was definitely requisitioned by the King of France, Archbishop Charles de Bourbondecides to return to the intramural palace.

He then had the building heavily renovated to bring it up to date, even though there was only a short time left in Lyon. The works are carried out around 1466. The most important modifications are the realization of a large body of building along the Saône, the construction of a chapel against the bedside of the cathedral and the covering of the rue des Estrées by a terrace. In a more secondary way, he also had a sentry box built on the facade facing the river and a monumental door to the northwest, overlooking rue de l’Archevêché.

Saint-Paul, Pierre-Scize and Bourgneuf
The districts of Pierre-Scize and Bourgneuf have long concentrated textile activities. During the Renaissance, between Saint-Paul and Saint-Christophe, the artisans of arms, printers and booksellers flourished. The south of St. Paul’s Square also sees a good number of money changers, goldsmiths and merchants of Piedmontese, Florentine or Spanish origin. This area, which was still poor at the end of the Hundred Years War, saw throughout the 15 century the population enrich and evolve, junior activities largely disappearing. Between rue Juiverie, Instead of the Change and Our Lady of the Palace is the heart of Lyon banking, and a busy shopping center, led by the Italians and that houses clerks of all European nations.

The tray Fourvière
The Fourvière plateau is still very sparse. The slopes of the hill are only subdivided along the streets which go up to the plateau, such as Gourguillon or Chemin-Neuf, created at that time. The only establishments created at that time on the slopes of the hill were the residences of aristocrats; the best known is that of Pierre Sala, which later became the Antiquaille hospital.

The north of the peninsula: Saint Nizier
The Saint-Nizier district is the shopping center on the imperial side of the city. Opposite the Change district, this district brings together mainly wealthy people. In its center, the Saint-Nizier church was completed at the end of the 16th century. All around the church, we find shovelers, haberdashery, clothiers, merchants and notaries, between the streets Vendrant, Longue and Mercière. The large bourgeois families are there, such as Humbert, Aynard de Varey and Humbert de Villeneuve; the rue Mercière alone concentrates the Le Maistre, Syvrieu and Thomassin. In the passage between the 15 and the 16 century, it saw trade of cloth and furs, parchment makers. Later, many printers settled there. This bourgeoisie is agglomerated with the nobility, by the purchase of lordship or the service of the king. There are also Milanese and Germans there.

This district is limited to the north by the new wall, built on the initiative of François I between 1545 and 1550 by François de Mandon. A cannon tower ends it in the east, defending the city against an invasion coming from the side of the Rhône. To the west, Fort Saint-Jean ends this wall. In between, the fence is fortified with four square bastions. This does not prevent the survival of the wall from the fourteenth century until the end of the sixteenth. In 1650, this wall, described as “fossats” was replaced by streets and an esplanade (future Place des Terreaux). This esplanade is used in particular for capital executions, in particular those of Cinq-Mars and Thou. It is also the site of an ephemeral Protestant temple, built by Baron des Adrets.

As you move away from the heart of the district, you come across streets where artisans and the common people live better than elsewhere, taking advantage of the riches of the fairs. Thus, the streets of Pêcherie and de l’Erberie, mostly inhabited by fishermen, preparers and sellers of fish, no longer know the poor. But other nearby areas are still inhabited by people of modest conditions: going towards the Rhône, or going down towards Bellecour.

The south of the peninsula: Ainay
South of Bellecour, and especially from Ainay, are mainly meadows, orchards, then swamps and islands. The peninsula is sanctuarized by convents which have vast surfaces, intended for agricultural production. Note that the stone bridge over the Rhône, 270 meters long, was completed at the beginning of the 16th century. It replaces the many wooden bridges built in the Middle Ages to cross the left bank of the river.

Paradoxically, the construction of bridges, whether over the Rhône or the Saône, is the first step in a long process of disaffection of Lyonnais towards waterways. Indeed, the bridges facilitating the transport from one bank to the other, the ferries and the moderas (small boats used for the transport of people) are abandoned; consequently, the boatmen’s porches being unused, the strikes lose their function as a place of passage.

The slopes of Saint-Vincent
The slopes of the current Croix-Rousse, sparsely populated, become denser during this period, as does the left bank of the Rhône.

The great works of absolutism
In Lyon in its chandelier, Samuel Chappuzeau believes that the city of Lyon, “if it does not want to dispute with a London or a Paris, to take the height of its buildings which are mostly raised up to six stories high, there would be three Constantinoples or three Caires one on top of the other”. The city of Lyon, even taking into account the exaggerations of a dithyrambic author, was already at that time a great city.

During absolutism, the first major urban development operations were carried out in Lyon. The first are not the result of royal power, but launched at the initiative of religious communities. Two bridges were built over the Saône around 1635. The initiative went to the Parisian engineer Christophe Marie, general contractor of the bridges of France, who was in the process of completing the Pont Neuf at that time. On September 7, 1634, he made a deal with the consulate to build a wooden bridge connecting the archbishopric to the south of the peninsula (at the site of the current Bonaparte bridge); the site must last less than a year, then the bridge will be subject to a concession for thirty years, with free fixing of the passage tariff by the manager.

In reality, the execution is delayed: an act of January 5, 1637 testifies to the near completion of the work, which however, the coaches and carts cannot yet borrow. This bridge, in the fashion of the time, was a merchant, and supported thirty-two shops located on both sides of the bridge. On the strength of this first success, Christophe Marie proposed on March 3, 1637 the construction of another crossing of the Saône, linking the industrious suburbs of Saint-Paul and Saint-Vincent; the contract is signed on May 8; nevertheless, this second site is not well accepted by the population, especially jugglers whose boats are used to cross the river, and who fear being ruined by the construction of the bridge; many degradations and even attacks on workers take place. The completion of this second work did not take place until 1641.

Place des Terreaux, although still undeveloped, has already been laid out; it justifies the construction of a new bridge (the future Passerelle Saint-Vincent). Further south, Henri IV built a promenade planted with three hundred trees, as well as a bridge serving it: in 1708, this promenade was built by his grandson Louis 14, and took the name of Place Louis-le-Grand: it is the current place Bellecour.

The various spaces fitted out (Jacobins and Cordeliers in particular) are located in the only spaces that remain available in the city center, that is to say the cemeteries. On the other hand, the streets do not follow a preconceived plan: they are either parallel or perpendicular to the two rivers. A certain spontaneous orthogonality emerges, but the transverse streets rarely end directly on the quays. Near the abbey of Ainay, major drainage and containment works are being carried out, which link the southern island to the peninsula.

Royal operations were more numerous in the 18th century, with the participation of renowned town planners: Cotte, Soufflot, Perrache and Morand. A first development project for the South of the Peninsula, very monumental, was proposed at the end of the 17th century by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, including an administrative city and a park inspired by that of Versailles. Finally, throughout this period, several bridges were thrown over the Saône, which counted five on the eve of the Revolution. On the other hand, the second Rhône bridge was not launched until 1774.

It is under absolutism that the generalization of the numbering of houses is done. After a first attempt at the 16 century, the royal decree of 1768 prescribes the generalization for military purposes (residential troops traveling).

The last major project of the Ancien Régime is the most ambitious. It is about destroying the walls of the abbey of Ainay and launching major works which will make the marshes and islets in the south of the peninsula practicable and ready for urbanization. In addition, the viable lands thus created should allow an improvement of the road going towards Languedoc, and authorize the establishment of numerous hydraulic mills on the dyked banks.

The works, supervised by Antoine Michel Perrache and Guillaume Delorme, and financed by the Compagnie des Interested aux Travaux du Midi in Lyon, began in 1771. But calculation errors marring the progress as well as the hostility of owners fearing to see the property value drop with this new offer are hindering the work. Only the dike supporting the road, as well as the Mulatière bridge, were built. Faced with these difficulties, one of the projects envisaged is to make this space a place reserved for Protestants or Jews. When Perrache died in 1779, the work was abandoned, the company facing more than two million pounds in debt. The king bought back the debt by becoming the owner of the land in 1784, but the Revolution brought the final blow to the works.

The first topographical plans of Lyon
Mapping of Lyon, still very fragmented and shy, begins at the end of the 18 century, with surveys conducted under the direction of André Ferrand (1714-1790).

Revolution and first nineteenth century: Lyon transition

The changes during the French Revolution
At the dawn of the new century, Lyon came out of the revolutionary turmoil diminished. The city lost at least 20,000 inhabitants under the Revolution, and its population stood at 94,000 according to the 1804 census. The siege of Lyon damaged and burned many neighborhoods. The Brotteaux plain is associated with the massacres of 1793. Under the First Empire, population growth was strong, reaching 121,000 people in Lyon in 1812.

Within these original limits, large spaces were freed under the Revolution by the sale of the goods of the clergy. They are quickly built at the beginning of the new century. The workers who work the silk, having to equip themselves with new very large looms, migrate from the Saint Jean and Saint Paul neighborhoods to new buildings, built especially for this activity in the 1830s and 1840s, on Croix-Rousse. including.

Topographic transformations
While most of the twenty-eight districts of 1746 bore the names of chapels or churches, the nomenclature of 1797 seeks to get rid of them: the renames refer to geographical elements (Rhône and Saône, Midi) or to important buildings or institutions located there (Currency, Library, Canvas Market, etc.). In the year X (1802-1803), these names were even replaced by numberings considered more rational.

More anecdotally but also closer to the life of all the inhabitants, the street signs are standardized and standardized according to the direction of the road in relation to the two rivers: those naming the streets parallel to the rivers are of oval shape, those naming intersecting streets (and often orthogonal) are square. The imperial decree of 1805 made the numbering of houses compulsory for tax purposes; the implementation in Lyon dates from 1811.

An ephemeral project imperial capital
At the initiative of the city’s elites, who want to transform the south of the peninsula, a project to complete Perrache’s work is being considered. To this end, the initiators of the project asked the senior architect Curten to produce, in 1805, a development plan for a vast pleasure park. The estimate for the various landscaping and hydraulic arrangements for the “Chinese-style” project is estimated by Mr. Curten at 350,000 francs. The work of Perrache was thus gradually extended, and the City bought the land in 1806.

Napoleon I plans at this time to establish four imperial seats distributed on the territory. He chose Lyon following the insistence of several notables of the city who offered to offer him a large piece of land on the confluence for him to realize. This generosity is of course explained by the benefits expected from the installation of such a building in the city, but also by the importance of the leveling and securing of the site, too considerable to be carried out by the local elites without Parisian support.

Napoleon appoints the architect Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine for this building, who is preparing two proposals, one on the site of the confluence and the other in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon. Napoleon chose that of the confluence but asked for a simpler version than what the architect had initially planned. We have a description of this project provided by the intendant Pierre Daru. Work began in 1810 and continued until 1813, then ceased due to the war. The municipality preserves the alley and the place carried out, which it reinstates in a plan of 1782. The plan of Fontaine envisaged the street Victor Hugo, which is all the same carried out between 1817 and 1841.

The first half of the 19 century, expanding beyond the Rhone
During the nineteenth century, the city of Lyon is transformed enormously. The main change is demographic: between 1789 and 1914, the population rose from around 150,000 to 460,000 inhabitants in 1914.

During the years 1825 – 1850, the major morphological evolution of Lyon is the considerable and anarchic development of the suburbs of the city, on the left bank of the Rhône, from Brotteaux to la Guillotière. A multitude of industries are deployed in this area and a large population settles. This growth is accompanied and revitalized by the establishment of the railway, and is carried out despite the threats of flooding. The Lyon suburbs went from 18,294 inhabitants to 43,524 between 1831 and 1851.

The systematic representation of urban space
The first cadastral representation of Lyon dates from 1835. It covers, at 1 / 2000, 1,024 hectares, which corresponds to Vieux Lyon and the Presqu’île, as well as to Vaise, Saint-Just, Saint-Irénée and La Guillotière. The levies are carried out under the control of the chief architect of the city, Louis Flacheron.

The transport and industry, engine development
One of the most important changes came in 1837, with the completion of the first railway line on the European continent (the Line from Saint-Étienne to Lyon). On this occasion, the first Lyon station was built, the Bourbonnais station. The railway, in view of Jean de Lacroix-Laval’s project to make the south of the Presqu’île an industrial district, is particularly welcome. 283,000 square meters are sold to the railway company. After the law of June 11, 1842, heated discussions took place on the location in which to locate the Paris-Lyon-Marseille station, and it was Perrache who ended up being chosen.

Between 1830 and 1855, eight bridges were built on the Saône, five on the Rhône, but all are chargeable (five centimes for example for the Morand bridge), with the exception of the medieval Guillotière bridge. It was not until 1860 that the bridges of the Rhône were freed, and in 1865 for those of the Saône. This construction of bridges goes hand in hand with embankment, particularly after the gigantic floods of 1856. Hitherto placed on the same level, the city and the river are stepped, the bas-port now being overlooked by several meters by the quay protected behind the dike. This work also resulted in the consolidation of traffic in the only port Édouard-Herriot. The Vaise water station is abandoned. Like many other spaces reclaimed from the unstable land bordering waterways, it was rapidly urbanized.

The town within its boundaries
A ring of fortifications was built from 1831 and throughout the 19 century, intended to defend the city against foreign attacks. This ambition differs from that which in Paris, pushes to the construction of the walls to delimit the space of the city and to perceive the grant; its technical and military value is however very low in many sectors, where it consists only of an “earth parapet with a ditch full of water”. In reality, it was above all the revolts of the canuts that decided the political and economic actors to submit to the demands of the military.

However, the constraints of inconstructibility that it imposes are very badly perceived by the Lyonnais, and especially by the industrialists, who see it as a brake on economic activity as well as an unnecessary barrier that freezes in space a metropolis that keeps growing. In theory, the first two hundred and fifty meters located in front of the wall represent the “first zone”, supposed to be non ædificandi; the second, also extensive, can only accommodate temporary buildings; the third, twice as large, where ditches and levees are subject to approval by the military authority. There are so many exceptions to these rules on the left bank and in Croix-Rousse that they are becoming more common than the rule; on the right bank of the Saône, only the first zone is respected. In the same way, to the right of the forts, a zone virgin of any construction is envisaged on the side of the city, but with multiple exceptions. These breaches of the military principles of rupture prevent the creation, as in Paris, of a non-urbanized corridor between the city and its suburbs.

Projects of limited scope
The municipality, from the Napoleonic era but also afterwards, is very careful in the town planning works to be undertaken to improve the city.

She began by having an alignment plan made for the houses to standardize the widths of the streets in the years 1810 – 1813. This plan was made on twenty boards at 1/300. These boards were then used for a long study to define which houses should be reduced to improve the situation, which lasted from 1813 to 1821. A synthesis in three general plans, to be used for municipal action, was established in 1826. Budgetary constraints explain this slowness, and the slowness in the application of the planned arrangements. Indeed, the city council decides to wait until the inconvenient dwellings are too dilapidated to order their demolition, and then only have to buy a portion of land.

The Second Empire real estate and urban operations
It was under the Second Empire that most of the urban renovations took place. The prefect of the Rhône and mayor of Lyon Vaïsse undertook these extensive transformations, like Haussmann in Paris, both for reasons of prestige and security. Unlike the operations carried out in Paris, however, there is no real break between the urban policy carried out under the restoration by Amédée Savoye and Benoit Poncet, on the one hand, and that carried out under the Second Empire by Vaïsse and his subordinates on the other hand.

He relies for this on his functions as administrator of the department and mayor of Lyon, and on men: the chief road engineer, appointed in 1854, Gustave Bonnet and the architect Benoit Poncet, who carried out the rue Impériale (now rue de la République) in the 1850s. La Guillotière, La Croix-Rousse and Vaise were attached to Lyon in 1852; on this occasion, the city of Lyon is divided into five arrondissements (the 3 then including the current 6, 7 and 8; the current 9 being included in 5). The numbering is designed to prevent identity claims from neighborhoods with a strong local memory.

Another characteristic of Second Empire town planning is the attention paid to the names of streets, whether old or new. Indeed, the triple annexation of March 1852 created situations of double, or even triple or quadruple, appellations of roads. The prefectural decree of February 17, 1855 modifies a hundred names to avoid confusion. It also aims to group together under the same term different names all located in the same alignment. Indeed, the prefects of the Second Empire aim to clarify the city, in order to give political authorities an easier reading of the urban fabric. Another reason given for the renaming of the roads is the replacement of toponyms evoking the local geography by names of prominent personalities, capable of forging a national consciousness. The old names are described as”Insignificant”, “ridiculous” or “obscene”.

The differentiation of neighborhoods
As the city spreads, the sociological specialization of the neighborhoods is very clearly asserted. The second arrondissement, around Place Bellecour, becomes the privileged district of the nobility (who moreover speak more readily of district of “Ainay”, or of the place “Louis-Le-Grand”); Terreaux and Saint-Clair, then Brotteaux, those of bankers, traders and manufacturers; rue Mercière, that of small traders; Saint-Georges and Saint-Paul, then Croix-Rousse from 1820, finally Vaise and la Guillotière, those of the workers.

It should also be noted that, far from the conflicts between trades which agitated the town planning of Saint-Etienne throughout the 19th century, the cohabitation of the different industries went relatively well in Lyon: it seems to everyone that Croix-Rousse is acquired by silks, the dyeing and finishing are undisputed at the quai Saint-Vincent, etc. The only location that occasionally poses a problem is that of the Vaise slaughterhouses, whose construction upstream of Lyon makes the inhabitants and especially the craftsmen fear water pollution. The industries of Lyon are in reality for the most part complementary and develop mainly (at least in their beginnings before the industrial revolution) according to the textile industry.

However, if this lived geography is indisputable, its borders sometimes remain blurred, especially for new neighborhoods. Thus, at the end of the 19th century, the limits of Croix-Rousse were sometimes assimilated to those of the fourth arrondissement, but sometimes also included the slopes of the first. Likewise, La Guillotière has no real northern border, and it includes or not the Brotteaux according to the publications.

La Croix-Rousse
La Croix-Rousse was heavily developed during the 19th century. It is an industrious district, where the canuts set up their workshops (previously, most were located in the Saint-Georges district). The great height of the Jacquard looms forced them to construct new buildings, including a very high ceiling (about four meters) on the ground floor. The district is being built quite quickly. Many convents, like that of the Bernardines, were closed during the Revolution; between 1815 and 1845, they are put to profit by real estate developers who make profitable the available surface by drawing straight streets facing the slope, by creating very high buildings, all built on the same model, with workshops on the ground floor. floor and housing for working families on the upper floors, and pierced with large windows to let in light even at the foot of buildings.

Like Vieux Lyon, the Croix-Rousse is pierced by very many traboules, which above all have a functional use, allowing residents to have at their disposal an almost private pedestrian path from the plateau to the bottom of the slopes. The semi-underground aspect of these passages also allows the canuts to transport their pieces of fabric relatively sheltered from the rain.

In this regard, it is interesting to note that La Croix-Rousse was sometimes called “Mont Sauvage” until around, or, more locally, “Saint-Sébastien hill”. The local name religious or referring to a rural aspect is here erased.

The peninsula
The development of the Presqu’île, between 1845 and 1880, is a very large-scale urban operation, which renews the real estate of the city center without comparison in France (including Paris). The architect investor Benoit Poncet plays a leading role in this transformation, in which private capital is as usual very largely in the majority. The peninsula is pierced by two wide avenues; bridges (whose tolls are removed) are renovated, quays are raised so that the new districts are protected from the floods of the Rhône and the Saône.

The southern part of the peninsula, beyond the Cours Bayard (current railway lines from Perrache station), was considered in the 1820s as a vast industrial zone. In 1820, the town sold the land located there, specifying that, for a period of twenty-five years, only industrial establishments could be built there (following the principles of separation of urban functions conceptualized by the Saint-Simonians in the first half of the 19 century and then applied by imperial planners). The mayor of Lyon, Jean de Lacroix-Laval, wrote in 1827 that he wanted to create a”Manchester Lyonnais, a city of fire [which attracts not only mechanical silk, but also] metals, glass, grain milling, woolen mills”, in particular to provide work for silk workers during periods of low activity. Quickly, this district located beyond the railway, is discredited (the southern zone is called “Behind the vaults”).

The left bank of the Rhône
The area located on the left bank of the Rhône was, until 1852, part of the department of Isère. The municipality of La Guillotière was attached to Lyon in 1852 (on the same date, La Croix-Rousse and Vaise were also attached to Lyon).

The left bank of the Rhône is considerably developed, buildings following the main avenues and many large and small bourgeois houses (they do not follow the model of the “private mansion”) come to stay between, in a little greenery. This part of Lyon experienced two strong spurts of urbanization, in 1853 and 1862. The Tête d’Or park has been developed and stations are set up in Brotteaux and La Guillotière. On the other hand, this vast space on the left bank has a fairly commonplace plan.

The streets built are orthogonal and rectilinear but there are few cul-de-sac in the large blocks, the built neighborhoods have few visual cues. Indeed, few monuments are built, with the exception of churches. This monotony of the new city is criticized in Vieilles Pierre Lyonnaises by Emmanuel Vingtrinier, who sees it as a copy of the “American city”. Similarly, Victor-Eugène Ardouin-Dumazet, in Voyage en France: la région lyonnaise, evokes “deserted” spaces, “endless rows of houses”, a “confused mass of spontaneously born neighborhoods”. Likewise again, Auguste Bleton, writing Across Lyon, complains of getting lost in”A vague country which is neither the suburb nor the countryside and which escapes classification”.

The Third Republic

The population explosion
Even more than at any other period, the population of Lyon changed dramatically in the second half of the 19th century. In absolute number, the population of the commune, even within the current limits (Croix-Rousse, Vaise, Guillotière included), passes from 240,955 inhabitants in 1846 to 459,099 in 1901, that is to say a quasi-doubling in little more than a half-century. This doubling is completed by a spatial reorganization. In the middle of the 19th century, the peninsula brought together 58.3% of the inhabitants of Lyon; at the turn of the century, this proportion rose to 29.7%. The trend is the opposite for the left bank of the Rhône, which goes from 14.9 to 49.9%. The Croix-Rousse plateau and the right bank of the Saône remain relatively stable, increasing in absolute number of inhabitants but decreasing in relative weight.

The major urban renewal operations
Under the new republican regime, the Lyon municipality undertook many works to develop the city. For many of them, they are a continuation of those undertaken by the previous regime. However, major projects were born under the mandate of Antoine Gailleton, and were continued by his successors.

The completion of the renovation of the city center is accomplished with the Grôlée district project. The company, managed by architects Delamare and Ferrand, opens a diagonal path between rue de la République and Pont Lafayette, creating buildings in a triangle, as in Haussmanian town planning. The standardization of the house numbering system was not finally decided until the municipal council of November 12, 1880.

The Gailleton municipality is also building several bridges, and especially the Faculties. Finally, on the left bank of the Rhône, it was under his direction that the Prefecture Palace was built. In 1884, part of the fortifications was decommissioned, which made it possible to build, among others, the Boulevard des Belges (then Boulevard du Nord) and the Boulevard Montgolfier.

The policy of renaming the streets continues, almost systematically removing names referring to religion or the monarchy, and in particular the very many names evoking the previous presence of monasteries or churches. The new names refer to recognized figures of national, republican (Léon Gambetta, Jules Ferry), scientific (Louis Pasteur), literary (Émile Zola, Victor Hugo, Ernest Renan) culture, but also to local figures of republican culture. (municipal councilors, benefactors of the city or the Hospices Civils, scholars of learned societies). Other neighborhoods did not experience major changes during these decades. Thus, Vaise and Perrache are areas of warehouses and medium-sized industries. The Brotteaux, for their part, were largely completed at the time.

The timid emergence of a heritage safeguard
However, the prefects Vaïsse and Gailleton pay little attention to the quality of the buildings which they demolish to make room for new buildings. Thus, Vaïsse had several hundred houses destroyed before the 18th century; in 1874, the Saint-Paul station was built in the eponymous historic district at the cost of the destruction of many Renaissance houses. The royal ordinance of October 2, 1844, creating an alignment plan for Lyon, is still valid under Gailleton. The latter plans to put this plan into effect until 1891: the sector engineer-voyer officially signals the presence of buildings of remarkable architectural quality, and therefore to be preserved.

Many religious monuments
Parish life is experiencing a strong revival. Between 1840 and 1875, in addition to the many churches restored, enlarged or whose work allowed for completion, seventeen new buildings were built, a good part of which in the new suburbs such as the left bank of the Rhône or the Croix-Rousse. Mr. Bonald, archbishop of the diocese from 1839 to 1870, in fact focuses his ministry on the construction of a large number of parishes intended for the rapidly growing urban population.

It is in particular the time of predilection of the architects Tony Desjardins (restorer of the primatiale, but also architect of the churches of Notre-Dame-du-Point-du-Jour, Saint-Polycarpe, Saint-Pierre de Vaise, Saint-André, Saint Bernard); Pierre Bossan (who designed the church of Immaculate Conception, and especially the basilica of Fourvière, see paragraph below); then disciples of the latter, in particular Clair Tisseur (churches of Sainte-Blandine, du Bon-Pasteur) and Louis Sainte-Marie Perrin (finalization of the basilica, of Saint-Bruno-les-Chartreux, then other buildings in the suburbs Lyon).

It was at the same time that the Basilica of Fourvière was built. Begun in 1872, the building was essentially completed in 1888. It was designed by intransigent Catholics as a monument of combat, intended to fight against the secularism of the Third Republic. In fact, its origin is much older, going back to the vow of the aldermen of the consulate in 1643, then to the renewal of this vow during the epidemics that struck Lyon in the 19th century, and during the war of 1870. Nevertheless, its method of financing, essentially based on a particularly successful popular subscription, makes the basilica a monument owned by the Lyonnais themselves, and not by the institutional Church (which will allow it in particular not to not be affected by the 1905 law).

Lyon around 1900
At the turn of the century, it was common to designate Lyon by several periphrases: “from La Claire to Quarantine and from La Motte to Saint Irénée” or “from Brotteaux to la Mulatière, from Vaise to La Guillotière”. Some authors are very restrictive in their definition of the “city”, such as Joséphin Péladan, for whom “the Lyon peninsula, which begins at the foot of La Croix-Rousse and ends at the confluence, contains the real city”.

Auguste Canneva goes barely further: “[On the Brotteaux side], civilization stops at the end of the trees of Cours Morand”. Victor-Eugène Ardouin-Dumazetis more inclusive, stating that the urban space encompasses Villeurbanne, Bron, Caluire, Saint-Rambert, Écully, La Mulatière and Oullins. The wall then lost its function of border, since the city extends without that one feels the need to tear it down everywhere: the last vestiges of the surrounding wall of the left bank were not demolished until the beginning of the 20 century; as to those on the Fourvière hill, they still remain in part at the beginning of 20I century. As for the grant, it was abolished in Lyon in 1901.

The means of communication are considerably developed at this time, the steam vehicles passing fully to the industrial stage. The stations are built larger (Saint-Paul in 1872) or renovated (Perrache, Brotteaux). The cable cars are added to the first built in 1862 (leading to Croix-Rousse), one in 1878, from Saint-Jean in Saint-Just and another in 1891 between Cross Paquet and Croix-Rousse. The tram appeared in 1880, held by the Compagnie des omnibus et tramway de Lyon, and spread rapidly. The first electrified line connects Lyon to Oullinsin 1884.

It was at this time that the population began to become aware of the profound urban rupture represented by the major transport axes. Édouard Aynard thus speaks of “Wall of China” when referring to the tracks at Perrache station in 1907; but this value judgment has been advanced by detractors of rail for about fifty years. “Behind the vaults”, the space which corresponds to the current Confluence, is a space which was almost abandoned by the municipal council for decades: from 1880 to 1910, the district became the privileged place for the dumping of household refuse, then a oil storage from 1907.

Despite the power of the interlocutor (the Compagnie “PLM” company) as well as the fear (expressed in particular by the Chamber of Commerce) of hampering the economic development of Lyon, which made the municipality yield to rail requirements, the city manages to obtain compensation: removal of level crossings, lighting and ceramic tiling of the tunnels created. This traumatic experience invites the elected officials of the left bank of the Rhône to be cautious, for fear of creating the same type of barrier (because it is already the case in Vaise) in their district at the level of the place Jean-Macé).

The ambition of a modern city: 1900 – 1940
At the end of the 19 and the beginning of the 20 century, Lyon was marked by the dominant figure of the architect and town planner Tony Garnier. Theorist, he imagines Une Cité Industriel (work published in 1917, but already partially written and revealed in 1904). He put his theories into practice in Lyon, particularly on the left bank of the Rhône, then in full development: the Grange-Blanche hospital, the Gerland stadium or the United States district are some of the achievements marked by his principles..

The Herriot mandate is a mandate rich in urban planning projects, in an intellectual atmosphere of research to break with previous practices. The term ” town planning” was written into ordinary language at that time and fully corresponded to the wishes of the Lyon players in the transformation of the city: Tony Garnier, Michel Roux-Spitz, Charles Meysson (architect of the municipality), C. Chalumeau (chief engineer of the city). It is about “creating something contemporary and not perfecting something existing.

New mentality, desire to situate oneself not only in the present but in the future”. C. Chalumeau begins by taking into account the most exact possible data of the existing situation and of the needs, and establishes an extension plan presented at the international exhibition of 1914, definitively adopted after the war in 1919. Until 1914, the work carried out was the follow-up to the works undertaken by Gailleton, sometimes retouched. Before the war, Herriot thus continued the Brotteaux district, around the new homonymous station, a district still strongly marked by Haussmannian architecture. He also built a large high school, originally annexed to the Ampère high school, the Parc high school, now emblematic of the city’s scientific intellectual influence.

Herriot was present at the inauguration in 1934 of the ” Gratte-ciel”, the new center of Villeurbanne urbanized by Lazare Goujon. This materializes the constitution of the dipole established by the economic activity “Lyon-Villeurbanne”, and the first inter-municipal association through the management of drinking water (correlated with the containment of the Rhône, at the Tête d’Or park in prefect Vaïsse and the railway tracks to the East).

The area to the south of the confluence was sustainably transformed by the development of the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône, the first concessionaire, which built the Pierre-Bénite dam there in the 1930s: the arms of the Rhône (lones) and the islands of this section that has remained relatively preserved disappear.

Hygienists projects

In general intentions desired by the holders of the modernization project, special attention is paid to hygiene (in 1932, the III International Congress of sanitary fittings and urban hygiene held in Lyon) and travel. Thus, to respond to the growth of the automobile flow, and in particular to the fact that many national roads reach the city, it was decided to create a half-loop by exploiting the line of declassified fortifications and the lower ports of the Rhône. Four bridges were built in this period: the Human Bridge Roche, the Pasteur bridge, the Wilson Bridge andFeuillée bridge.

Other projects are emerging, under the influence of Tony Garnier in particular, in close coordination with the mayor. It was at this time that the major major projects of the Herriot mandate were launched: the slaughterhouses of La Mouche (start of work in 1908), which notably include the Grande Halle (today the Tony-Garnier hall), the hospital of Grange-Blanche (1911) which was to replace the old Hôtel-Dieu, and the Stade de Gerland (1913). All these projects were completed in the interwar period.

After the First World War, projects accelerated. The Charité hospital was destroyed, leaving its place at the central post office and a place in continuity with Place Bellecour (today Place Antonin-Poncet). The US district strongly inspired by the ideal city dreamed by Tony Garnier, is built in the VII district (this part of the district later became the VIII). The Stade de Gerland is completed, but will never host the 1924 Olympic Games which ultimately fell to Paris. After having hesitated on the location, the river port has three dockswas built on its current location in 1935: the Édouard-Herriot port.

The urban renewal planned or carried out

Other projects fail. Indeed, the city launched at this time a competition per year, each time concerning a different site. Few of these projects really see the light of day. We can however cite that of Tony Garnier who planned to extend the Perrache – Victor-Hugo – Bellecour – République – Opéra axis to the Boulevard de la Croix-Rousse, at the cost of major demolitions on the slopes and reconstruction. in a modern style. This monumental climb was to lead to a monument to the dead of the Great War in place of Gros Caillou, which would have been visible from the left bank, during secular at Fourvière. The demolition of the Hôtel-Dieu was also submitted to a competition. It does18 century, while a new district would have been born in the historic heart. The demolition-reconstruction of the Guillotière sectoraround the Place du Pont was also considered. The idea of building gates that would symbolically set the limits of Lyon was launched, but never realized despite the projects of several architects including Tony Garnier.

On the night of November 12 to 13, 1930, a dramatic landslide occurred between rue Tramassac and the rise of Chemin-Neuf: it was the Fourvière disaster. Forty deaths are to be deplored. This disaster made the public authorities aware of the state of disinheritance in which the old districts were, abandoned by urban operations (already, in 1852, the right bank of the Saône was described by Francis Linossier as “the second city under the plaster”; other authors refer to it as “the city of the Middle Ages” or a “dead quarter”). Mayor Édouard HerriotJudge for his part that “old Lyon is a collection of slums, just worthy of the knacker” and that “we must demolish all the buildings in the rue de la Bombarde”.

In 1938, a “Competition for the beautification of old Lyon” was launched, the principles of which were strongly inspired by the Charter of Athens. The winner, Pierre Bourdeix, chief architect of civil buildings and national palaces (since 1937) is planning the expansion of Place Saint-Jean, the development of a garden and a fountain facing the cathedral. Jean Zay, Minister of National Education, is opposed to this destruction by registering the buildings in Place Saint-Jean in the inventory of historic monuments. The next step would have consisted of renovating the entire district on either side of a large street twenty meters wide; all the buildings in the district, deemed dangerous and unhealthy, are on the verge of demolition, with the exception of the primatiale and the Gadagne museum. Bourdeix is planning to set up a market-station served by Saint-Paul.

The municipal council of March 7, 1938 shows the opposition between a “builder” municipality, which plans to acquire and destroy a large part of the buildings in order to”Clearing the cathedral up to the Fourvière hill”, and a “Parisian” power (Paul Gélis, chief architect of Historic Monuments, Émile Bollaert, prefect of the Rhône and former director of Fine Arts) concerned about heritage preservation, which in 1937 had registered 88 buildings constituting nearly a thousand dwellings in the supplementary inventory of historical monuments. All these projects were delayed, then definitively postponed by the Second World War.

Since 1944

Population growth
The population of Lyon is still evolving during the second half of the twentieth century. Between 1946 and 1966, the city went from 460,748 inhabitants to 524,569, this growth partly constituting a catching-up of the population lost during the war. However, as in the previous period, the distribution of this population continues to change. The left bank, already preponderant (57% of the municipal population) at the end of the war, received 59.5% twenty years later. Croix-Rousse (4th arrondissement) and the right bank of the Saône (5 and 9) are also progressing slightly faster than the whole municipality. It is the peninsula (1 and 2 districts) which is losing inhabitants, even in absolute terms, falling below the threshold of 100,000 residents.

But the main evolution of the population is to be sought elsewhere: the agglomerated population is no longer only that of the municipality, but brings together an agglomeration with more and more municipalities. The Lyon metropolitan area quickly became a millionaire, with 1,152,805 inhabitants in 1975, 1,318,000 in 1999.

The town planning of the “Charters of Athens”
In the early post-war years, the Athens Charter of 1933 still remains a reference for those involved in planning. Its principle of construction of large apartment buildings results in the creation of large cities which serve in particular to house the surplus population created by the baby boom, immigration and the repatriation of the Algerian Blackfoot. Its principle of separation of functions leads to the creation of specialized districts. The mayor of 1957 Louis Pradel is in a way the symbol of this period.”Always preferring to pour concrete than to restore (Charter of Athens 1931) old buildings, would have ordered a good bulldozer. He was satisfied with another project: the creation of a bridge in front of the rue Grenette that would extend a wide boulevard on the hill of Fourvière. “. He had also strongly influenced the decision to pass the freeway through the city center, noting afterwards that his city was then the only one in the world, with Los Angeles, to be able to be crossed “straight ahead, without a traffic light. red”.

The Trente Glorieuses are marked by a strong interventionism of the State, which carries out major works in the city, particularly on the infrastructures: the bridges are re-established as of the end of the war.

Édouard Herriot, again mayor in 1946, did not carry out the major works required by the condition of quays. The Croix-Rousse tunnel is dug by re-urbanizing Vaise. At that time, the reconstruction of the Jean-Macé sector was well made (C. Delfante, sic)}}. Low- cost housing is being developed in existing neighborhoods, which have become central.

In the 1950s, the Ministry of Reconstruction and Urbanism joined forces with the Lyon Urban Planning Group to develop “residential cities”. Their constitution is in urban periphery: La Duchère in the ninth arrondissement, Bron and Vénissieux outside Lyon.

The takeover of the local authority

The creation of the DATAR (1963) made it possible to reorient investments in urban infrastructure and housing, and to find a framework plan for the development of the city. Thus the slums will be treated.

The organizations’ “territorial decentralization” policy goes hand in hand with the delegation of responsibility for hospitals, educational facilities and museums. The “ZUPs” were decreed in 1958 to “build” and support Lyon to develop as an agglomeration with a European dimension.

This period was marked by the constitution of the Urban Community of Lyon (COURLY, renamed “Grand Lyon”), one of the inter-municipal structures created by the State to develop and manage the metropolitan territory by changing the department of several municipalities. Foundation in September 1978 of the Urban Community Agency (or AGURCO), which in 2014 became UrbaLyon.

The Perrache exchange center is built around the Fourvière tunnel by the Greater Lyon: the A6 and A7 highways still cross the city center. Consequence: one of the results of this policy is the persistence and even the worsening of the isolation of the southern part of the Peninsula, separated from the Bellecour district by the now double barrier formed by the road interchange center along the railway lines, and separated from the Rhône by the highway.

The enhancement of heritage
From 1964, awareness of the heritage interest of old buildings began. The most spectacular turnaround concerns the district of Vieux Lyon: many times promised to total or partial destruction, socially deprived, composed of largely unsanitary housing, it was saved from destruction by André Malraux: by virtue of the law which its name, voted two years earlier, the latter created in Old Lyon the first protected area in France.

The Perrache exchange center built around the Tunnel de Fourvière, the A6 and A7 motorways cross the city center. One of the results of this policy is the persistence and even the worsening of the isolation of the southern part of the Peninsula, separated from the Bellecour district by the now double barrier formed by the road interchange center along the main roads. railroad, and separated from the Rhône by highway.

The rehabilitation of buildings was systematized between 1970 and 1995, and tourist attendance began to grow. However, certain reflexes of heavy urban renewal remained in place: in 1970, large bourgeois residences on rue Mercière, with three or four floors facing an interior courtyard, were thus razed to the ground.

On December 5, 1998, Vieux Lyon, but also the hills of Fourvière and Croix-Rousse and the entire northern part of the Peninsula are classified as World Heritage.

Urban renewal
During the 1950s and 1960s, the lower ports were partly backfilled to develop passageways dedicated to cars, the most emblematic case of which remains the motorway which runs along the right bank of the Rhône between the Mulatière bridge and the Perrache exchange center. Elsewhere, when the lower quays were not backfilled at the level of the quay, they were transformed into parking spaces, either on one level (left bank of the Rhône) or in silos (right bank of the Saône).

One of the strong symbols of the 1970s is the construction of La Part-Dieu which is composed of a “Corbusian” habitat built by Jean Zumbrunnen, the halls of Lyon, the auditorium, the first skyscraper tower in Lyon, a shopping center, the municipal library, the SNCF train station and the bus station.

In the 1990s, the main urban planning project was the Cité internationale, which was set up between the Tête d’Or park and the Rhône thanks to the relocation of the Lyon fair to the Eurexpo site in Chassieu.

The decades 2000-2010 and 2010-2020 are marked by the SRU law which encourages the reconstruction of the city on itself, urban renewal and carries the obligation to follow new hygiene standards for work and housing. It is in this perspective that very important town planning operations are being carried out, such as the development of the Confluence district, which concerns the entire south of the Presqu’île, beyond the Perrache station. The station market moves to Corbas, the original site being destroyed to make way for a new district; the St. Paul prisons and St. Joseph are also displaced in Corbas, their premises being rehabilitated byCatholic University of Lyon.

During these years, Lyon also experienced redevelopments in favor of green spaces, the most striking of which was the development of the banks of the Rhône, but also other major developments such as the Henry-Chabert park in 2000 or the Sergent Blandan park in the 2010s. We can also see this logic in the continuous development of Part-Dieu, with the construction of a set of offices first to the north of the district along Avenue Thiers, then to the south around the Montluc district and the ZAC de la Buire. In these developments, the Part-Dieu district sees the construction of skyscrapers such as the Oxygène tower and then the Incity tower..

Another district affected by these restructurings is that of Gerland, which specializes strongly around the pharmaceutical industry, with the creation of Lyonbiopôle. The P4 Jean Mérieux laboratory was inaugurated in 1999. The district also housed Merial’s head office in 2011. At the same time, the north of the Gerland district saw the construction of many dense residential complexes with the ZAC des Girondins and the ZAC du Bon Lait. Finally, the historic city center is also experiencing several development operations such as the rehabilitation of the Lyon opera house in 1993, the demolition of the former Grand Bazaar or the real estate restoration perimeter (PRI) of the slopes of Croix-Rousse between 2001 and 2006.

The Musée des Confluences built on the tip of the peninsula on the place of the “Pradel boulodrome” is the new strong signal of the “city gate” of Lyon from the South, It required a major redevelopment of the quays with the construction from Pont Raymond-Barre for the tramway.