The history of Lyon is very rich. If the place is occupied since prehistory, the first city dates from the ancient Rome.

Antiquity

See also: Lugdunum

Christianization

Only one century after the death of Jesus-Christ, of the Chrétiens come from the Raising settle there. Holy Pothin and Sainte Blandine appears among the first Martyrs, died in 177 under the reign of Marc Aurèle during one dubious time for the Empire (Peste, cruel Invasions). Holy Irenee, successor of Pothin Saint, is one of the first Théologien S Christians. Lyon becomes one of the intellectual centers of Christendom, illustrated at the 5th century by Sidoine Apollinaire.

In 197, the emperor Septime Sévère faces and beats at the time of the Bataille of Lugdunum his competitor Clodius Albinus, then lets his soldiers plunder the city which had supported Albinus. Septime Sévère however knew well Lugdunum, to have been Légat there, and its two sons Caracalla and Geta had been born there.

At the end of the 3rd century at the time of the reorganizations of the Tétrarchie, Lugdunum loses its row of capital of Gaules, with the profit of Trier, nearer to the border of the the Rhine. Lugdunum is nothing any more but the administrative seat of the small province of Lugdunaise I.

Early middle ages

In 437, Germanic tribes Burgonde S are installed like federate in Sapaudia by the Roman general Aetius after the destruction of their kingdom of Worms by the Huns. These Burgondes extend their domination during the disintegration of the Western Empire and in 461 make of Lyon the capital of their kingdom, the Burgondie or Burgundy.

In 532, the wire of Clovis integrate this kingdom under the franque domination. The frank kings following dispute the Royaume of Burgundy, frequently possession of the king of Neustrie.

In these disturbed times, the families of the Gallo-Roman nobility mitigate the disappearance of the Roman imperial administration. Some their members are elected bishops of Lyon by their community: Holy Rusticus, bishop of Lyon of 494 with 501, his/her brother Holy Viventiolus (514 - 524), Holy Sacerdos, wire of Rusticus and bishop of 544 with 552, which designated its nephew Saint Nizier to succeed to him of 553 573. Saint Nizier was buried in a church which took its name.
The incapacity of the frank kings left the free field to the dash of the Moslem conquerors: firmly installed in Languedoc (in particular with Narbonne of 718 with 759), they go up the corridor of the Rhone. Towards 725 or 730 (according to the sources), a raid reached Autun, Lugdunum devastation with the passage (destruction of the Saint-Nizier church) and returns with spoils and prisoners reduced in Esclavage. The one second forwarding towards 737 temporarily takes the control of the Vallée of the Rhone and reached Burgundy. The campaigns of Charles Martel and Pépin the Brief restored the franque domination on the south of Gaulle, drawing aside any invasion on Lugdunum during some generations.

the Middle Ages

The city is a hearth of the rebirth Carolingien, under the impulse of its archbishop Leidrade - friendly of Alcuin -, of the deacon Florus, then of Agobard.

After the Treated of Verdun and the succession of Charlemagne, the city returns to Lothaire, as the remainder of Eastern bank of the Saone. Lyon consequently becomes a town of Lotharingie.

The administration of the city is entrusted to Gerard of Roussillon which tries to be made independent, but is driven out city by Charles the Bald person in 870. Then Boson incorporates it in 879 in the Royaume of Provence which will last until 928. In same time, signs feudality, the old duchy of Lyon is parcelled out in counties of the Lyonese, Drill, the Beaujolais wine.

9th and 10th century were again a time of raids of plunderings: the Normands go up the Rhone, in 911 the Hungarian devastate Burgundy, the Sarrasins settle in the Massif Moors until in 975, and multiply forwardings by the roads of the Alps.

In 952, Lyon makes party of the Kingdom of Arles. It is the time when the Church of Lyon increases considerably its goods thanks to its archbishops, Burchard Ier and Burchard II, parents of the king. In 1018, the kingdom of Arles is bequeathed by its last king Rodolphe III of Burgundy to the Saint Empire Romain Germanique. Thereafter, the city will be managed by its bishops, depending with the Temporel of the Emperor, king d' Allemagne, of Italy and Burgundy, via the Archichancellerie of Burgundy.

With the wire of the centuries, the name of Lugdunum is simplified: “Loudoun” is quoted by an Arab geographer of the 8th century, and “Lion” or “Lyon” appears at the 13th century.

The city, although modest remainder by its size, radiates on the religious level.

• the archbishop of Lyon is high with the row of Primat of Gaules by the pope Gregoire VII in 1078.
• Towards 1170, the Lyons merchant Pierre Valdo starts to preach evangelic poverty after having sold all its goods. Initially tolerated, then suspecté of heresy, it is Excommunié in 1184 by the pope Lucius III. Its partisans flee Lyon, after having set fire to the too luxurious church of Saint-Nizier, and become the Église of Vaud.
• Two councils are held to with it during the 13th century: council of 1245 and council of 1274
• Later two popes of Avignon will be crowned there: Clement V and Jean XXII

During all this time, Lyon east taken in the disagreements between pope and emperor, under the interested eye of the King de France, and, more directly, subjected to carried out houses of Savoy (within the imperial framework), of Beaujolais wine and the Drill (for the king of France). But it is the prince-archbishop who exerts the powers layman and monk on the city.

The general movement of communal emancipation touches Lyon. Philippe IV of France intervenes in the disagreements which oppose archbishop and middle-class man, and makes its entry in Lyon on March 13rd 1311. In 1312, the fastening of Lyon to the kingdom of France is recognized with the Concile of Vienna, without the emperor protesting. Lyon obtains its communal charter on June 21st 1320. During the War one hundred year old, Lyon remains faithful to kings de France.

Starting from Louis XI, the kings of France make of it the center of the French activities in Italy. Lyon benefits thus very early from economic development and cultural Italian. It is at that time that Lyon obtains the franknesses for its 4 annual fairs.

Rebirth

Economically, the city develops especially as from the 16th century with the arrival of bankers florentins, merchants attracted by the royal franknesses and the behavior from four Foire S per annum, the installation of Imprimeur S, and the maintenance of commercial links with Germany. The trade of the Soie develops particularly, by the work of the “Canuts”, the workmen out of silk. Those also influence architecture, because they need parts of more than 4 meters under ceiling to place their weaving looms there. From this time remain many buildings of Renaissance style, witnesses of the richness of a city which reaches a European scale. At that time the city is extremely prosperous. It is the first European banking place, in front of Geneva, and one of the largest European city. The interbreeding is very important there, which is worth to him the nickname of Myrelingues. the Court resides at it at many recoveries, and the king François I {{er}} very seriously considers there sédentariser and thus to make of Lyon his capital. The death of the François dolphin in turbid circumstances, at the time of part of Play of palm, will come to put an end to this assumption, part of the Lyons middle-class being shown to have plotted against him. It is thus at that time that François Ier launches renovation works of the Louvre and turns over to Paris.

Nevertheless the life of simple people remains difficult, even empire by the speculations of the merchants. In testifies Large Rebeyne, revolt of the hunger which has took place the April 18th 1529.

With the advent of Henri II, Lyon east with the ridge of its power. It is the most populated city kingdom with its 50.000 inhabitants. The frequent presence of the last kings involved an economic activity and cultural intense. However the debt is enormous and will sign a slow decline.

Wars of religion

The wars of religion tear the city. At the beginning, the Catholique S are mainly moderated, but some heretics are burned alives places Composts (in particular Pasteur Monier in 1551). The disorders become extensive as from 1560. In the night from April 29th to 30th 1562, Réformés emparrent strategic points and Lyon passes to the Réforme. The baron of the Adrets assists in his reformed. But the new governor, the Marshal of Vieilleville, restores the situation in favor of the king: he disarms the Huguenots on June 15th, 1563, puts a term at the confrontations, reopens the churches and allows the construction of three temples. He is replaced by Jean de Losses.

Charles IX between the June 13rd 1564 in the city at the time of royal sound Tour de France (1564 - 1566), accompanied by the Court and Large by the kingdom: his/her brother the duke of Anjou, Henri de Navarre, cardinal of Bourbon and Lorraine. The edict prohibiting the worship Protesting in the city where the king is taken in Lyon. In order to preserve the city, the Fort Saint-Sebastien is built in 1565, and accommodates a garrison of 400 men.

The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre is repeated in Lyon. As of on August 28th 1572, the governor François Mandelot is prevented by royal mail requiring of him to maintain the order. The tradesmen are however informed of the Parisian massacre by their contacts of business, and some Protestants are assassinated, the municipality made up of catholics extremists and the governor letting make. August 31st, the prisons are forced by groups given: on the whole, 700 huguenots at least are massacred. The forwarding of the Baron of the Adrets also marked the city, which spends time to be rectified but prestige former to the wars does not find, the majority of the printers emigrating in Geneva. In the same way, the banking big families fled Lyon never not to return there (75 Italian banks in 1568, 21 in 1597).

During the Eighth war of religion, the city adheres, like the majority of France, with the catholic Ligue (rising of February 24th, 1589). But when Henri IV converts with Catholicism in July 1593, the city rocks in the other camp, stops its governor, the duke of Nemours in September 1593, with the support of the archbishop Pierre d' Épinac. In February 1594, the city opens its doors with the lieutenant of the king of Ornano. Henri IV of France made there its entry on September 4th, 1595. It puts an end to the communal autonomy by the edict of Chany.

The XVIIe century

During two centuries of royal absolutism, the administration of the city passes between the hands of the royal officers: initially the governors (recruited in particular in the Villeroy family), then lorque those will more often reside at the Court than in province, the Intendants. (See also the List of the Provosts of the merchants of Lyon)

Starting from the Years 1630, the Tolerance reign and is even constant by the archbishop Camille de Neuville de Villeroy under its episcopate (1653 - 1693). About 1630, under the impulse of the college of the Jésuite S (current college Amp) Lyon becomes a intellectual center of the République of the Letters. The richness of the notable Lyoneses make of them enlightened amateurs of tables, medals, and books. The city is embellished with the construction of the Town hall, Lyon profits from royal generosities thanks to its fidelity with the crown at the time of the Fronde.

In the last quarter of this century, the silk factory monopolizes the main part of the economic forces of the city to the detriment of the trade and the bank, left the abroads, Genevois and Suisse S.

The XVIIIe century

With the XVIIIe century the town of Lyon east to narrow in its historical borders. Indeed, the city is limited to the current peninsula and the Old man-Lyon. The slopes of Fourvière and Cross-Russet-red are inconstructibles, because they are grounds belonging to the Church, and the left bank is also in its great majority (except for the suburb of Guillotière) because it is located in floodplain (Brotteaux). It is what explains the propensity of the Lyons buildings of the time to gain in height.

Two people will set up Pharaonic plans to increase the town of Lyon. Morand, first of all, envisages to drain part of the marshes of left bank and to parcel out these grounds according to a checkerboard plan. Thus the day current the Franklin-Roosevelt Cours will see. It connects this new district to the Peninsula by a bridge, the Pont Morand, initially of wood, then out of stone. The second project is that of Perrache, which projects to double the surface of the peninsula by extending it to the south. It will put this project at execution, but did not have time to parcel out it and the projected district was not built.

The XVIIIè Lyonese is marked by two major inventions which were tested each one in 1783: the Steamer and the Montgolfier.

The French revolution and the Empire

Under the Constituent one, Lyon becomes chief town of the department of the Rhone-and-Loire which will be divided into two after the Lyons insurrection.

See also: Rising of Lyon against national Convention

During the French revolution, Lyon takes in 1793 the party of the Girondins and is raised against Convention. The city undergoes a seat of more than two months before going. The repression of the Convention is wild. The October 12th 1793, conventional the Barère is praised of its success in its terms: Lyon made the war with freedom, Lyon is not more. Lyon takes the name of thus City-freed . Approximately 2000 people are shot or guillotinées, and several rich person private mansions around the Place Bellecour destroyed.

The takeover by Bonaparte is perceived favorably, like the end of the black period and the return to civil peace. The consulate and the Empire support the silk industry and bear interest to the inventions of Jacquard. Bonaparte makes designate his/her uncle Joseph Fesch with the seat archiépiscopal in 1802. Lyon favorably accommodates Napoleon at the time of his return of the Isle of Elba, which is worth to him a royalist reaction at the time of the second Restoration. The last imperial military governor Régis Sheep-Duvernet is shot there in 1816.

Restoration and the Monarchy of July

Thanks to the competences inherited silk, the city enters the Industrial revolution with textile industry. It becomes at the 19th century an important town industrial, mainly thanks to the Canut S. the first Court of arbitration of France was made up in Lyon on March 18th 1806, to arbitrate the litigations between owners and workmen of silk.

The city is connected to Saint-Etienne by one of the first railways in the world (the first in France) by engineer Marc Seguin of 1827 to 1832. Mechanization involves many social struggles with insurrectionary crises, like the “Révolte of the Silk workers” in 1831.

See also: Revolt of the Silk workers

The establishment of the Weaving loom of Jacquard marked the rise of a culture on the complex mechanical systems. The inventions of the Sewing machine by Thimmonier and, later on that of the Cinéma by the Frères Light are indebted mechanical easy ways of the weaving loom connecting series of successive actions, of which progressions of band per jolt.

The Second Empire

At the time of the Fête of the lights of December 8th, 1852 the habit begins from the lampions to the windows.

Economic life

At the beginning of the second Empire, Lyon is still the first French money market. The modification of the economic structure which will intervene under this mode will call into question this preeminence to the advantage of Paris. However the city really grows rich under the second empire, with the continuation of the industrial revolution, in particular thanks to the Lyons capital investits in the factories and mines of the area inhabitant of Saint-Etienne. Chemical industry diversifies and the textile is always also flourishing.

The second Empire is especially marked by the creation of the Crédit Lyonnais in 1863, by Henri Germain.

Great Work

Like Paris, Lyon is marked at that time by a series of urban upheavals. Claude-Marius Vaïsse, mayor of Lyon and prefect of the Rhone, is at the origin of this policy of Great Work.

In 1848, the urban fabric of the peninsula is regarded as obsolete. Three large openings are carried out to air this space: the Imperial street (street of the Republic) and the street of the Empress (Street of the Town hall, then street President-Herriot) as well as the street Victor-Hugo. The Imperial Street makes twenty two meters broad and shelters the most beautiful coffees of Lyon. Places are also created: the Imperial place (place of the Republic) and places it of Cordeliers.

It is also at that time that the Parc of the Gold Head is arranged on left bank. It is about a park of 116 hectares, with horse on the communes of Lyon and Villeurbanne, which is still today the largest city park of Europe.

Lastly, Lyon is equipped with a large station, the station of Perrache, connecting the railways coming from Paris and of Marseilles, but being unaware of voluntarily those in provennace of Saint-Etienne. The Gare of Perrache allows the liaision the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean, and creates also a cut in the middle of the Peninsula.

Beginnings of IIIè Republic

After the Défaite of Sedan the Republic (too much) quickly is proclaimed in Lyon. Disorders will burst in the city, causing several executions, of which that of the Commander Arnaud. The period 1870-1871 besides is very agitated. In December, an insurrection bursts, the Commune of Lyon. Since the balcony of the Town hall, the Russian anarchist Bakounine calls with the international Revolution, persuaded that the Lyoneses, in particular the Canuts, are revolutionists. The experiment makes failure, and finishes in a blood bath. In April 1871, the city knows disorders again, following the Commune of Paris. The prefect of the time, Louis Andrieux, brings back the calm one quickly, at the price of a severe repression.

After the war, the decision is made to build the Basilica of Fourvière, in order to expier the sins of the Commune. The Lyons political life is still under the supervision of the State. The End of the XIXè century is marked by the many ones made an attempt anarchistic, in Lyon as in the remainder of France, of which most famous are that which strikes the Bellecour Coffee and the assassination of President Sadi Carnot in 1894 by Caserio.

The mayor emblématique of this period is Doctor Gailleton, named in 1881. He undertakes to improve the public health, he creates many council schools, and is at the origin of the first tram lines. He also creates the medical college and renovates certain districts like the districts Grolée, Saint Paul and Mulatière. It is at that time that Lyon recovers one of its monuments emblematic: the Bartholdi Fountain, initially planned for the Town of Bordeaux and the place of the Quincunxes.

In 1900, Gailleton is beaten by the Socialist Victor Augagneur. This one tries to create a large commune of Lyon by annexing the close municipalities, like Oullins, Mulatière, Villeurbanne, Vénissieux, Bron… This attempt fails.

The Herriot Mandate

In 1905, a young person normalien becomes mayor of Lyon to replace Victor Augagneur, left in Madagascar as ambassador plenipotentiary: Edouard Herriot. This mayor quickly will assert himself like a large mayor and will be always re-elected until his death in 1957.

Great projects of town planning

The Herriot mandate is a mandate rich in projects of town planning. Before war, it carries out the new district of Brotteaux, around the new homonymous station, district still strongly marked by architecture haussmannienne. It also makes build a large College, at the additional origin of the college Ampère, the Lycée of the Park, from now on emblematic of the intellectual radiation of the city. Other projects are born, under the influence in particular of the architect Tony Garnier, in strong complicity with the mayor. It is thus at that time that the large outstanding building sites of the Herriot mandate are launched: slaughter-houses of the Fly (1906), which include/understand in particular the Grande Halle (auj. Halle Tony-Garnier), the Hospital of Barn-White (1910) which was to replace old Hôtel-Dieu, and the stage of Gerland (1914). To note that all these building sites are finished in the interval wars.

After the First World War, the projects accelerate. The Hospital of Charity is destroyed, leaving its place at the central post office and a place in continuity of the place Bellecour (auj. Place Antonin-Poncet). The district of the United States, district strongly inspired of the ideal city dreamed by Tony Garnier, is built in VIIè district (this part of the district will become later VIIIè). The stage of Gerland is completed, but will never accommodate the Olympic Games of 1924 which finally fell to Paris.

Other projects will fall through. Indeed, the City at that time launches a contest per annum, each time on a different site. Few of these projects will be born really. One can however quote that of Tony Garnier who envisaged to prolong the axis Perrache - Victor-Hugo - Bellecour - Republic - Opera to the boulevard of theRusset-red one, at the price of important demolitions on the slopes and of a rebuilding in a modern style. This monumental rise was to lead to a war memorial of the Great War instead of the Large Stone, which would have been visible from left bank, during layman with Fourvière. The demolition of the Hospital was also subjected to contest. There would have remained about it only the building XVIIIè of Soufflot, while a new district would have been born in full historical heart. Lastly, the demolition-rebuilding of the sector of Guillotière, around the place of the Bridge was also considered.

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