Budget · 3-hour walk · Lyon
Vieux Lyon and Fourvière in three hours
The cathedral's astronomical clock, the funicular to the basilica, the Roman theatres and the Renaissance lanes below.
Lyon began on the hill of Fourvière, where the Romans founded Lugdunum in 43 BC, and spread down to the bank of the Saône, where bankers and silk merchants from Italy built the Renaissance quarter now called Vieux Lyon. This route takes the funicular up, walks back down past the Roman theatres, and finishes in the old lanes and their traboules, the covered passages that cut through the houses from one street to the next.
The route, stop by stop
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Cathédrale Saint-Jean
Begun in 1180 and finished in 1476, the church of the archbishop who has held the title Primate of the Gauls since 1079. Inside is an astronomical clock from the 14th century whose figures move several times a day.
25 min here Walk here → -
Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière
Built with private money between 1872 and 1884, its interior covered in mosaics and gold. The gilded Virgin on the older chapel's tower beside it was unveiled on 8 December 1852, when the Lyonnais lit candles in their windows: the start of the Fête des Lumières.
35 min here Walk here → -
Théâtres romains de Fourvière
The great theatre was built around 15 BC and enlarged in the early 2nd century to seat 10,000, with a smaller odeon beside it. The tiers are still used every June and July for the Nuits de Fourvière festival.
30 min here Walk here → -
Montée du Gourguillon
One of the oldest streets in the city, a steep cobbled lane that was the main way down from the hill to the cathedral quarter. Go slowly; the stones are polished smooth.
10 min here Walk here → -
Maison du Crible
At 16 rue du Bœuf, a Renaissance house whose courtyard holds the Tour Rose, a pink-washed stair tower. The longest traboule in the quarter runs nearby from 54 rue Saint-Jean through to 27 rue du Bœuf; residents live around these courtyards, so keep your voice down.
15 min here Walk here → -
Place du Change
The square of the money-changers who came for Lyon's fairs. The Loge du Change on it was rebuilt by Soufflot, later the architect of the Panthéon in Paris, and is now a Protestant church.
10 min here Walk here → -
Église Saint-Paul
A Romanesque church at the northern end of Vieux Lyon, with an octagonal tower over its crossing. The little station opposite runs tram-trains to the western suburbs.
10 min here Walk here →
More walks in Lyon
More in Lyon
Every walking route in Lyon, the full Lyon guide for where to stay and what a day costs, or walks in other cities.