The Lyon site has been occupied since prehistoric times and the first town dates Ancient Rome. A quote from the historian Fernand Braudel has the wealth and complexity of the history of Lyon:
"The fate of Lyon is not simpler than the river. Every city, no doubt, is to be complicated, Lyon more than another, that strikes the historian by his wealth, his sudden transformations, its originality or its strangeness. It is not the same from one century to the next century and more constrained than going willingly, she spends endless originality to another. It is, in itself, a difficult problem of the historian of France, perhaps the key issue, surely clef20 indicator. '
Prehistory and Antiquity [edit]
Main article: Lugdunum.

Statue of Lucius Plancus Munatius, founder of Lyon.

Model of Lugdunum, the former capital of the Gauls in the Musée Gallo-Roman Fourvière.
The Neolithic to the second Iron Age finds many different tracks habitat and objects of every kind attest the existence of a relay wine trade between the Mediterranean coast and the north (sixth century BC. AD). In the absence of more sophisticated artifacts, we can not at this time about the village or ville21. On the Fourvière hill, they found thousands of amphorae. It is possible that this is a place where the Gallic chiefs gathered to feast in honor of the god Lug.
Capital of the Gauls [edit]
Lucius Plancus Munatius based on the site a Roman colony under the name of Colonia Copia Felix Munatia Lugdunum in 43 BC. BC. The beginnings of the colony are poorly understood. It is not fitted with wall, at most a berm surrounding ditches and palisades with the image of romains22 camps. But the city of earth and wood gives way to building the foundations masonry pierres23. The growth of the city is fast due to its highly strategic location. The name of the city evolve in Colonia Copia Lugdunum. In 27 BC. BC, General Agrippa, son and minister of Augustus divided Gaul. Lugdunum became the capital of the province of Gaul Lyon and the seat of imperial power in the three provinces of Gaul, and became the Caput Galliarum, "Capital of the Gauls". From 19 BC. BC, Augustus is developing the urban network, which hosts four lanes open through Gaul from Lugdunum24. The city with the advent of various successive emperors, will expand, enrich and beautify themselves. Two Roman emperors were born in Lyon: Claude, born in 10 BC. BC and Caracalla, born in 186. In 64, the notables of Lugdunum aware of the fire that ravaged Rome, and send four million sesterces aid for reconstruction. The following year, at 65, Lugdunum was the victim of a terrible fire, Nero is in turn donated four million sesterces for his reconstruction25 Lugdunum.
Lugdunum key position at the confluence of the Arar (Saône) and Rhodanus (Rhone), makes it an important river port. It is also a first-class road junction, connected both to Rome from the south of Gaul (Narbonne), the Rhone valley and Marseille, and secondly to Aquitaine and Brittany, the valley of the Seine and the port of Boulogne, link to the island of Britain, it allows access to the Rhine, the Doubs valley or via Helvetie to take the border (the "limes") against Germania, then it will be directly linked to Italy by the valleys of the Alps, after the submission of Alpine tribes still independent. This dual position puts Lugdunum in touch all of Gaul north and west with the rest of the Empire. Its status as a Roman colony granted by the Senate and the role of capital of the Gauls promote the growth of the city.
Under the Flavian (69 to 96), then under the Antonines (96 to 192), Lugdunum prosperous, and knows peace like the Roman world. Its population is estimated at between 50 000 and 80 000 habitants26, making it one of the largest cities of Gaul with Narbo Martius (Narbonne). The city is spread on four areas particularly delineated: the upper town (where was founded the original colony), the village Celtic Condate the Canabae and the right bank of the Saone River, below the upper town. The cemeteries are located along the access roads to the city.
Decline [edit]
Under Severus (193-235), at the time of the conviction of the Christian Martyrs (177), the city will begin to decline, mainly because of the imperial succession disputes. Clodius Albinus, a pretender to the throne moved to Lugdunum to the late second century and face wait for Severus. He was defeated at the Battle of Lugdunum and Severus plundering cité27.
At the end of the third century during the reorganization of the Tetrarchy, Lugdunum lost its status as the capital of the Gauls in 297 in favor of Trier, closer to the Rhine frontier. Lugdunum is only the administrative seat of the small province of First Lyonnaise (Lyon, Burgundy and Franche-Comté).
In the early years of the fourth century, the city lost its water supply due to the looting of lead pipes for aqueducts, which can not be replaced by local authorities défaillantes28. This results in a displacement of the population, leaving the tray Fourvière to take refuge near fleuve29.
Late antiquity Lyon is announced by the installation of Burgundian tribes people in Sapaudie as federated by the Roman general Aetius, after the destruction of their kingdom near the Rhine. They create a new realm, independent of the Roman Empire deliquescent, and incorporate in Lyon, they are one of their capitale30.
Christianity [edit]
The first implementations of Christianity in Gaul are known to us by a letter transcribed by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History. She used to date the establishment of Christianity in the city in the middle of the second century. Lyon is a favorable place for the arrival of its central location in the common European exchange and the high proportion of foreign traveling and settling in the city. During the first time (until the third century), Lyon seems to be the only city to have a Gallic évêque31.
The best-known episode of the Christianization of the martyrs is 177. Described by the letter of St. Irenaeus recovery by Eusèce of Caesarea, it shows the dead Saint Pothinus and Sainte Blandine, among others.
It was during the fourth century that the city closes its pagan temples and reorganizing social life around its bishop and the calendar of the Church. Lyon became one of the intellectual centers of Christianity, illustrated by the fifth century Sidonius Apollinaire32.
Middle Ages [edit]

The Choir adjoining the cathedral is built in the eleventh century.
Lyon, during the Middle Ages, became a city of average importance, far from the centers of power, major trade and is not implied by the major conflicts in the great powers.
Topographic and demographic history [edit]
Throughout the first half of the Middle Ages, Lyon is folded on both banks of the Saône. The fifth to the tenth century, sources and archaeological studies fail to accurately describe the city, but there seems to have little changes, no scale civil constructions and some new facilities religieux33.
With the turn of the millennium, the city starts to grow Rhone. Eleventh and twelfth century castle construction dating Peter Scize and the wall that surrounds the canonical neighborhood of Saint-Jean. In civil matters, the first stone bridge in Lyon, the Saone, is built at the place du Change and completed in the year 107034. In the religious sphere, Lyon heavily renovated many churches: that of the Ile Barbe, Ainay, for example. Saint-Just was completely rebuilt near the old location. The site is the most important, however, that of the Saint Jean cathedral, begun by Archbishop Guichard Pontigny from the 1170s, and continues the centuries suivants35.
The thirteenth to the fifteenth century, the urban transformations remain modest. The city is growing very slowly, continuing the work undertaken previously. The big news is the end of the twelfth century the construction of a wooden bridge over the Rhône36. To replace it, a second side is built of stone, which consumes considerable work is completed and fortunes at the end of the fourteenth siècle37 38. At the end of the Middle Ages, new builders are the mendicant orders, who settled in the city, especially near its periphery. In the religious sphere, a number of churches were renovated this church Saint-Nizier, whose bell tower north welcomes the belfry.
Political and religious history [edit]

The division of the Empire in the Treaty of Verdun
Lyon is one of the capitals of the kingdom of Burgundy from 470 to 53439,40,41, when it passes, as the kingdom of Burgundy under the authority of the Merovingian.
The city is home to the Carolingian renaissance, spurred on by his archbishop Leidrade (friend of Alcuin), the deacon Florus, then Agobard of Lyon42. After the Treaty of Verdun and the succession of Charlemagne, the city comes with the kingdom of Burgundy Lothaire, like the rest of the eastern shore of the Saône43. However located far from the centers of power, its religious leaders are quite independent of the various powers that exist nominally above, while still under the influence of different forms of the kingdom of Bourgogne44. The ninth and tenth centuries, raiding and looting that shook the surrounding regions (the Normans back the Rhone, and in 911, the Hungarians ravage Burgundy), do not seem to reach Lyon45.

Facade of the Cathedral of St. John
The city has some influence on the religious level. The archbishop of Lyon is elevated to Primate of Gaul by Pope Gregory VII from 1078, although the distinction is largely ceremonial. Two conciles46 are organized in the thirteenth century, and is home to several popes: Innocent IV stayed there, Clement V is crowned John XXII is elected couronné47. Lyon also saw the birth of the Evangelical church, with the preaching of Peter Waldo who start in the city around 1170. But the movement disappears from the history of Lyon from the initiator of the movement is driven by 118,348.
If, during the eleventh and twelfth, the archbishop of Lyon manages to remain sole master of the city despite the attempts of the dynasty Forez49, he can only slow down the movement for the emancipation of the citizens of the city. They get the charter in 1320 called the "Sabaudine", which establishes their autonomy and control of cité50. The bourgeois have achieved after decades of struggle and with the support of King Philip IV of France, which includes permanently Lyon in his kingdom in 131 251.
During the Hundred Years War, Lyon, close to the Duchy of Burgundy is asked to take his party. Having maintained its neutrality during longer possible, it remains faithful to the kings of France, without being combats52. Like all cities in France, Lyon must meet a tax war very important, triggering the revolts of 1393 and 143653.
Renaissance and wars of religion [edit]
Main article: History of Printing in Lyon and History of silk in Lyon.

Lyon silk brocade
This is the golden age of the city, it develops economically, especially from the sixteenth century with the arrival of Florentine bankers, merchants attracted by the royal franchises and held four fairs a year, the installation of 'printers, and maintaining commercial links with Germany. Poetry shines through school in Lyon. The silk trade is growing, especially through the work of the silk, the silk workers. They also influence the architecture, because they need parts more than 4 meters ceiling to accommodate their looms. From this time many buildings are Renaissance, showcasing the wealth of a city that reached a European scale.
At that time the city was extremely prosperous. This is the first place bank to Geneva [ref. needed], and one of the largest cities in Europe. The number of languages is very important, which earned him the nickname "Myrelingues" (thousand languages). Court resident on numerous occasions, and King Francis I seriously considering to settle there and thus make Lyon the capital but it will eventually return to the Louvre in Paris, after the accidental death of a son . At the accession of Henry II, Lyon was at the height of its power. It is the second most populous city of the kingdom with its 50 000 inhabitants. The frequent presence of the last kings led to intense economic and cultural activity. However, the debt is huge and the lives of ordinary people remains difficult (Great Rebeyne, hunger revolt which took place April 18, 1529) will sign a slow decline.
But the wars of religion will tear the city, it will be marked in particular by the shipping baron Adrets in 1562, organizing the massacres of Catholics, looting and destruction of religious buildings (churches, Saint-Just and Saint- Nizier Ainay Abbey, the monastery of St. Irenaeus, the statues of the Cathedral of St. John). The city will take time to recover and not return to the previous prestige: Most printers have emigrated to Geneva similarly large banking families fleeing Lyon at this time never to return (the city is home to 75 Italian banks in 1568, but only 21 in 1597). seventeenth and eighteenth centuries [edit]

Saône in Lyon in the eighteenth century
From 14 to 21 September 1602, there were incessant rains in the region. Saône overflowed in September 1602 and reached prodigious heights. September 27 was the Saône to the stairs to the front door of the church des Grands-Augustins, almost entering the cloister front. Thereafter she entered the cloister to the knee and in the church until the first level of the two that are below the lamp in front of the high altar. The tombs of the church in earth sank and had to be up and mend. It surpassed the dock Célestins overwhelming, with input from the waters of the Doubs, the suburb of Vaise, Bellecour, making land part of the buildings of the royal arsenal Rigaudière, instead Comfort, the convent of the Jacobins, the Boys streets, the Grenette, the Tripe and Prescherie. Near Saint-Jean boat we went to the streets of Flanders and the port of Saint Paul to the Puys Sel54.
During the two centuries of royal absolutism, the administration of the city passed into the hands of royal officers: first governors (including family recruited Villeroy), then when they reside more often to the Court that 'province in the Stewards (see also the list of provosts of the merchants of Lyon).
From the 1630s, tolerance reigns and is even supported by the Archbishop Camille de Neufville de Villeroy under his episcopate (1653-1693). 1630, under the leadership of the Jesuit College (now the Lycée Ampère), Lyon became an intellectual center of the Republic of Letters. Wealth of notable Lyonnais in fact connoisseurs of paintings, medals, and books. The city was beautified with the construction of the City Hall, Lyon enjoys royal largesse with his loyalty to the crown during the Fronde. In the last quarter of this century, the silk factory takes up most of the economic forces of the city at the expense of trade and banking, left to foreigners, Geneva, Lombards, Tuscans and Swiss.
In the eighteenth century, the city of Lyon is cramped in its historical boundaries. Indeed, the city is limited to the current peninsula and Vieux Lyon. The slopes of Fourvière and Croix-Rousse are unbuildable because it is land belonging to the Church, and the left bank is also in the vast majority (except suburb of Guillotière) because it is located in a flood zone (Brotteaux). This is what explains the propensity of buildings in Lyon time to gain height.
Two people will put plans in place to expand the Pharaonic city of Lyon. Morand, first of all, provides a dry part of the marsh on the left bank and subdivide the land following a grid pattern. It connects the new district to the Peninsula by a bridge, the bridge Morand. The second project is the Perrache, which plans to double the size of the peninsula extending south. It will project out, but had no time to subdivide and the projected area was not built.
The eighteenth century Lyon is marked by two major inventions that were tested each in 1783: the steamer and balloon.
French Revolution and Empire [edit]
Main article: Lyon Uprising against the National Convention.

The siege of Lyons in 1793
In the Constituent Assembly, Lyon became the chief town of the department of Rhône-et-Loire, which will be split into two after the insurrection of Lyon. During the French Revolution, Lyon in 1793 takes advantage of the Girondins and rose against the Convention. The city was besieged for more than two months before traveling. The repression of the Convention is fierce. October 12, 1793, the conventional Barere boasts of its success in these terms: Lyons made war on freedom, Lyons is no more. Lyon takes on the name of City-paid. More than 2,000 people were shot or guillotined, and several rich mansions around the Place Bellecour destroyed, as the castle of Pierre Scize.
On 21 August 1794, the National Convention in Lyon sends two representatives, Louis Joseph Charlier and Pierre-Amédée Pomponne Pocholle to reorganize the city and the department after the excesses of repression. They get that the city returns to its name.
The takeover is perceived favorably by Bonaparte, as the end of the dark period and the return to civil peace. The Consulate and the Empire promote the silk industry and bear interest at inventions Jacquard. Bonaparte designate his uncle Joseph Fesch the archbishopric in 1802.
In 1804, a project was launched at the Imperial Palace Lyon (as in other cities of France). In 1811, a letter from the Duke of Cadore, Minister of State, said: "The Imperial Palace will be high on the water station, the garden will be in the peninsula between the two rivers, to the bridge the Mulatière. " But the project never succeed because of wars throughout Europe55.
Lyon welcomes Napoleon on his return from Elba (see Hundred Days) March 10, 1815. It says, before returning to Paris, "Lyon, I love you" 56.
This home will be worth in Lyon a royalist reaction in the second Restoration.
Restoration and July Monarchy [edit]
Main article: Revolt Canuts.

The revolt of the silk workers, the silk workers in 1834
With skills inherited from silk, the city enters the industrial revolution with the textile industry. In the nineteenth century it became an important industrial city, thanks in large part to the weavers.
The city is connected to St. Stephen by one of the first railways in the world (the first line of passenger transport in France) by the engineer Marc Seguin from 1827 to 1832. Mechanization leads to many social struggles with insurgent attacks, as the rebellion of Canuts in 1831.
The implementation of the Jacquard loom marked the rise of a culture on complex mechanical systems. Inventions of the sewing machine Thimmonier and later the film by the Lumière brothers owe tricks mechanical loom chaining a series of successive actions, including progressions tape smoothly.
Second Empire [edit]
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Lyon in 1869 from the Croix-Rousse
During the Feast of the Immaculate Conception December 8 1852 begins lanterns custom windows. The story of 8 December is closely linked to the religious history of Lyon.
In 1850, the religious authorities are launching a competition to design a statue, seen as a signal religious atop Fourvière Hill. A year later, the contest was won by sculptor Lyon Fabisch, and September 8, 1852 was chosen for its inauguration. But in August, the Saône out of bed and invaded the site where the statue should be performed.
The opening is postponed to December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The same day, the newspapers announced the program for the evening and the whole city is preparing for the event. Some even provide illuminating the facades of their homes with candles. But bad weather will again upset the festivities, forcing religious authorities to put the event on 12 December. Despite this countermanded, enthusiasm Lyonnais was not extinguished.
At 18h, the first light windows, and 20h, the entire city is illuminated. A large part of the population to the streets, joyful and tender, this is amazing spontaneous and communicative. Religious authorities follow suit and the chapel of Fourvière appears in the night.

Plan projects on the peninsula of Lyon in 1863
That evening, a feast was born. Every year now, December 8, Lyon lay candles in their windows and gather to walk the streets of the city.
On the economic front, Lyon is still the first French financial, as illustrated by the creation of Crédit Lyonnais in 1863, by Henri Germain. Changing economic structure that will occur under this regime will challenge this rule in favor of Paris. However, the city actually enriches the Second Empire, with the continuation of the industrial revolution, thanks to Lyon capital invested in factories and mines in the region of Saint-Etienne. The chemical industry is diversified and is still flourishing textile.

Lyon nineteenth-century
Like the Baron Haussmann in Paris, Claude-Marius Vaïsse, Mayor of Lyon and prefect of the Rhone, is the origin of implementation of a policy of Major Works: In 1848, the urban fabric of the Peninsula is considered obsolete. Two major breakthroughs are made to ventilate this space: Imperial Street (rue de la République) and Empress Street (rue de l'Hôtel de Ville, and rue Président Herriot). Spaces are also created: the Imperial up (Republic Square) and the Place des Cordeliers.
It is also at this time that the Parc de la Tête d'Or is built on the left bank. It is a beautiful park of 116 hectares.
Finally, Lyon has a great station Perrache station, connecting the railway from Saint-Étienne (1832 completion of Lyon Givors-section therefore allows linking Saint-Étienne-Lyon first transmission line travelers from France). Perrache station also allows the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée. It also creates a break in the middle of the peninsula.
Lyon Contemporary [edit]

Panorama of Lyon from the Basilica Notre-Dame de Fourvière.
The beginning of the last century is marked by the mandate of Edouard Herriot (1905-1957), whose major urban projects, implemented by Tony Garnier, lead to the development of Brotteaux district around the station same name and the Lycée du Parc. In the district of Gerland Great Hall (now Halle Tony-Garnier) and the Gerland stadium, built in 1914 and originally planned for the Olympic Games of 1924 (which finally took place in Paris). In Monplaisir is built hospital Grange-Blanche (1910) which was to replace the old Hôtel-Dieu. After the first world war, other projects will be carried out: The Charité hospital is destroyed, leaving its place to the post office and a place in the continuity of the Place Bellecour (now Place Antonin-Poncet). The area of the United States, strongly inspired neighborhood of the ideal envisioned by Tony Garnier, was built in the seventh arrondissement (this part of the district later became the eighth).
Main article: Lyon during the Second World War.
During World War II, is located in the free zone until 1943, and very close to the line, the city welcomes refugees and became a center of resistance. Traboules, closely linked to the history of Lyon, contribute much as they can easily escape the Gestapo. Jean Moulin was captured Caluire, its suburbs. The city was bombed 26 May 1944 by Allied aircraft, shortly before his release September 3, 1944 by 1st DFL and FFI57. The Centre for the History of Resistance and Deportation, former headquarters of the Gestapo (see Klaus Barbie, Paul Touvier), pays tribute to the past. Lyon also has the title of "the capital of resistance", a glorious title awarded by General de Gaulle September 14, 1944, a few days after the liberation of the city. Tata Senegalese Chasselay, a military cemetery built in 1942, pays tribute to the work of Senegalese infantrymen for the defense of Lyon in June 1940.
The mandate of the successor Edouard Herriot, Louis Pradel, is marked by the development of highway docks right bank of the Rhône, the construction of the district Duchère, the clearinghouse Perrache district of La Part-Dieu , the Fourvière tunnel, the Gallo-Roman Lyon Metro particular.
The city is then directed: by Francisque Collomb that during his two terms (1976-1989) was the cause of some major achievements Lyon: the rehabilitation of the Halle Tony-Garnier, creating Eurexpo bridge Winston Churchill, the station of the Share -God, the coming of Interpol, the renovation of the courthouse, the launch of the international city and convention center; by Michael Black (former Minister of Foreign Trade), which during his tenure (1989-1995) Opera renovation of the city, the place of Celestine and the place of Soils, named "Grand Lyon" Urban Community Lyon58, initiated the lighting plan that highlights the buildings of the city at night and organized the World Chess Championship 1990; by Raymond Barre (former Prime Minister), who between 1995 and 2001 favored the creation of the World Forum in Lyon science of life "Biovision" installation above Normal Schools in the district of Gerland, Lyon received in 1996 22nd G7 summit (in) 59 and managed to classify 199 860 427 ha of the city World Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
Gérard Collomb and was elected mayor in 2001 and re-elected in the 1st round in 2008. He set up the banks of the Rhone, Lyon endows a system of free bicycle rental service (Vélo'v) and began the development of the Confluence district on which banks are created in late 2009, along the Saône confluence of water to the basin connected to the Saône (opened in June 2010). He also launched several projects in the area round of the Part-Dieu (3rd district) including oxygen and turn round Incity future. Number of other projects are under consideration tower Eva, Flint 2, Icade and many others ...