The City

The City of Lyon

Bridges
Districts
Fortifications

The Old City stretches on the right strand: to the north the church of Saint Paul, the hostelries of the Bourg Neuf where travelers stop; in the center, toward Pont de Pierre, burgesses’ homes; then, girded by its defensive walls, the Episcopal district where Saint Jean rears its broad white facade, dominated of its two chunky Towers; to the south Saint Georges delimits the City with its abrupt rise to the cloister of canons of Saint Just. Some sinuous streets lie down on this strand where houses rise because space is rare; pushed on top one another, searching for the balance as they climb up the hill. In this Old City, except in the district Saint Paul, open spaces are rare, craftsmen’s and labourer’s houses are overcrowded and contrast with the spacious homes of the rich burgesses and lawyers.

On the other side of Pont de Pierre's, the old suburb of Lyon of the 12th century became the new city, more airy, more dynamic, more rebellious. It preserved a semi-rural aspect: streets, also narrow and sinuous, are sprinkled with parklands; gardens, grapevines, curtils surround houses; closes open large perspectives; le clos de la Croisette to the crossroads of the present streets of the Grenette and the Palace Grillet; le clos Bardine to the present Les Halles, bordered by vorgines of the Rhone where one traces a street named, for this reason, the Rue Buisson; le clos de la Platière, so small, that the name seems a bit pompous for such a small garden; le clos Saint Pierre which spreads north to les Terreaux, bounded by Rue Ste Catherine. In les clos houses, generally basses, that is to say, without a first floor; lay scattered ; sometimes, very rarely, they line up with laneways that serve to mark the limits of large public spaces. In contrast, streets with their high and low houses, indicate increasing fortune, with entire new floors sometimes built.

Toward the abbey of Saint Pierre the district is old and streets recall the arteries of the right strand. Established in La Rue Tendent Saint Saturnin au Four de Malconseil is the fraternity of the Saint Esprit, founded in 1274 by Jean Legris, Cure of Saint Pierre, named after the Rue de Plastre Saint Esprit. The street of Pet Etroit goes from Malconseil to ramparts that protect the city along the Rhone. Elsewhere, where densities are less, the district that kept its old Latin name of vicus conserved its individuality. The district of Montribloud (the present Rue Mulet) extends from Saint Pierre to the Rhone; the district of Bonnevaux is crossed after the convent of the Cordeliers by the famous street where monks of Bonnevaux bought a house at the corner of la Rue Grenette, giving it also a name; the district of la Grenette, the borough of the Olards between Dominican friars and the Saône.

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