Lyon's Roman theatre, built around 15 BC and enlarged in AD 120, sat an audience of 10,000. Romans held poetry readings and musical recitals in the smaller, adjacent odéon.
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
1.84 MILES
This eye-catching building, designed by the Viennese firm Coop Himmelb(l)au, is the crowning glory of Lyon's newest neighbourhood, the Confluence, at…
0.83 MILES
This stunning and eminently manageable museum showcases France's finest collection of sculptures and paintings outside of Paris, from antiquity onwards…
16.13 MILES
Across the Rhône from Vienne, the Musée Gallo-Romain highlights Vienne's historical importance, displaying several rooms full of dazzling mosaics and…
Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière
0.21 MILES
Crowning the hill, with stunning city panoramas from its terrace, this superb example of late-19th-century French ecclesiastical architecture is lined…
1.43 MILES
Lyon's race toward the future is personified in this reborn industrial district near the southern tip of Presqu'île. Once a landscape of empty warehouses…
0.37 MILES
Lyon's partly Romanesque cathedral was built between the late 11th and early 16th centuries. The portals of its Flamboyant Gothic facade, completed in…
0.47 MILES
Housed in a 16th-century mansion built for two rich Florentine bankers, this twin-themed exhibition space incorporates an excellent local history museum,…
0.85 MILES
The centrepiece of the Presqu'île's beautiful central square is a 19th-century fountain made of 21 tonnes of lead and sculpted by Frédéric-Auguste…
Nearby Lyon attractions
1. Musée Gallo-Romain de Fourvière
0.04 MILES
For an enlightening historical perspective on the city's past, start your visit at this archaeological museum on the hillside of Fourvière. It hosts a…
2. Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière
0.21 MILES
Crowning the hill, with stunning city panoramas from its terrace, this superb example of late-19th-century French ecclesiastical architecture is lined…
3. Cathédrale St-Jean-Baptiste
0.37 MILES
Lyon's partly Romanesque cathedral was built between the late 11th and early 16th centuries. The portals of its Flamboyant Gothic facade, completed in…
0.39 MILES
This maze-like museum on tourist-busy rue St-Jean provides an unusual insight into the making of movie sets and special effects achieved with the use of…
0.42 MILES
Facing the river in old Lyon, the grandiose neo-classical Palais de Justice is well worth a gander.
0.47 MILES
Housed in a 16th-century mansion built for two rich Florentine bankers, this twin-themed exhibition space incorporates an excellent local history museum,…
7. Le Petit Musée Fantastique de Guignol
0.49 MILES
The star of this tiny, two-floor museum is Guignol, the Lyonnais puppet famous for its slapstick antics and political commentary. Various animated scenes…
0.61 MILES
One of Europe’s largest public squares, gravel-strewn place Bellecour was laid out in the 17th century. In the centre is an equestrian statue of Louis XIV.