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Lyon: History and Monuments

Lyon: History and Monuments

Lyon · France

14 stops5.9 km1 h 13 min
  • Audio guide
  • 4 languages
  • Offline

Follow Lyon’s historic layers from the Roman theatre and Odéon to churches, civic buildings, museums, and public monuments. You will see archaeological remains, monumental architecture, and preserved historic streetscapes that show how the city’s past remains visible in its buildings and spaces. The walk brings together places of public life, worship, law, craftsmanship, and remembrance. Pause at each stop to read the city’s history through the surviving forms around you.

The walk

Stops 1–6 of 14. The rest are in the app.

  1. Ancient Theatre of Fourvière

    Ancient Theatre of Fourvière

    A Roman theatre buried, quarried, misidentified, and brought back to light.

  2. Ancient Odeon of Lyon

    Ancient Odeon of Lyon

    A Roman odeon mistaken for a martyr amphitheatre, then buried, quarried and rediscovered.

  3. Saint-Just Basilica

    Saint-Just Basilica

    A vanished basilica whose coloured plan reveals sixteen centuries of Lyon beneath your feet.

  4. 8 more stops on this walk, in the app
  5. Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

    Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

    A hilltop basilica born from a plague vow, a war pledge, and Lyon’s long devotion to Mary.

  6. Vieux Lyon

    Vieux Lyon

    A medieval and Renaissance quarter that survived because Lyon rebuilt its centre somewhere else.

  7. Gadagne Museums

    Gadagne Museums

    A Renaissance merchant’s mansion turned into Lyon’s museum of the city and puppetry.

  8. Stop 7

  9. Stop 8

  10. Stop 9

  11. 8 more stops in the app

Data: OpenStreetMap contributors and Google Places

More walks in Lyon

8 walks

How a walk works

8 more stops in the app

This page shows the first 6 of 14 stops. The rest of the walk, and the guide who narrates it, are in the app.

  1. Pick a walk

    Every stop is a real place, already in walking order.

  2. Pocket your phone

    Follow the line on the live map, or download the walk before you lose signal.

  3. Listen as you arrive

    On a narrated walk the story starts on its own at each stop, so your eyes stay on the place.

See the whole walk in the app

Free to install · Every city’s featured walk is free, start to finish.

  • A guide who talks

    Narration at every stop, starting on its own as you arrive — phone in your pocket.

  • The route, followed

    A live map with the turns called out, and a way back whenever you wander off it.

  • In four languages

    English, French, Spanish and Arabic — the words and the voice, not just the labels.

  • Or build your own

    Pick the places you actually want and the app works out the order to walk them in.

  • The unglamorous things

    Toilets, pharmacies, cash points and water, without leaving the walk.

  • No signal needed

    Download a walk before you go and it works under a souk roof or on a plane.

  • Picks up where you left off

    Stop for lunch, come back tomorrow, and the walk is exactly where you left it.