Park of the Gold Head

The park of the Gold Head of the town of Lyon is the largest city park of France. It is managed by the town of Lyon. True lung of the agglomeration, it offers on 117 hectares a vast natural extent in the middle of the city. One reaches it by 7 entries. It is the park more attended of Lyon, mainly by the sportsmen and the families. Various events, films, theater, exposures or other make a high place of the Lyons culture of it.

History

In 1530, the grounds constituting the current park are the property of the Lambert family, and the place bears already the name of “gold head”. This name comes from a legend according to which a treasure with a head of gold Christ was hidden at this place. The field was then a floodplain made up of lônes (dead arms) of the Rhone and of brotteaux (marshes). It will remain it until the creation of the park.

Since 1812 a city park in Lyon east in project. Various places were considered, like the peninsula or the hill of Fourvière, then finally, the current grounds, belonging mainly to the old people's homes of Lyon were selected.

The park created on the initiative of the senator-mayor Claude-Marius Vaïsse in order to “give nature to those which do not have any”. Work of the park begins as of 1856, under the direction of the Swiss landscape designers Denis and Eugene Bulher, and lasts 5 years. The park is open since 1857, even if at this period the whole of work are not completed yet. It is located at the north of the district of the Brotteaux and borders the the Rhone. A dam is built, making it possible to return not-easily flooded of vast grounds, transformed into park.

As of 1861, the park offers the spaces devoted to the presentation of the animals. The plan of the Bühler brothers comprises original mentions like that of a park to the sheep, an enclosure of hens and a pasture with cows. Gradually, zoological gardens are created, by the arrival of exotic animals, construction then the restoration of adapted installations, the last goes back to it being the African plain, inaugurated in October 2006.

In 1894, the World Fair, international and colonial is held on the site of the park of the Gold Head.

The Park of the Gold Head was divided a long time between Lyon and Villeurbanne, the border between the two common ones crossing the park right through. The arguments and competitions were ceaseless between the two communes in connection with the expenditure and of the receipts of the park. It is Jean Casimir-Perier, president under the III {{E}} République (June 27th, 1894 - January 15th, 1895), which will promulgate the December 17th 1894, the law pronouncing the annexation with the 6 {{E}} district of Lyon, of the part of the park located on the territory of Villeurbanne.

The park today

Plan

It was modelled with English, with great turfed extents and a corrugated relief. It is bordered by a dam which separates it from the the Rhone on which the fair and the exposures were held. After the removal of the Exhibition center in suburbs to Chassieu, the site became a real complex with offices, apartments and entertainment, the International Cité of Lyon . One also finds there a lake of 16 hectares, in the center of which the island of the memory is on which a memorial in form of Quadrilatère is set up. In the past called Island of the Swans , it was transformed in the fields of the architect Tony Garnier and the sculptor Jean Larrivé, in order to honor the soldiers died in the combat. The names of the soldiers are engraved on the sides external of the walls. An underground corridor gives access the island, the staircase which carries out to it plunging literally under the lake.

On this lake, there exists another island, the island of the tamaris, only accessible in the boat which one can rent on a landing stage.

Trees

The park counts more than 8 800 trees, including 36,5% of coniferous tree, 61,0% of leafy trees, 2,5% of rare gasolines. Some are remarkable. One belongs to the Platane S reaching 40 meters height, of the Cèdre S of Lebanon, the tulipiers of Virginia, the gingkos biloba, the cypresses bald people, the giant sequoias. A guide-walk of the remarkable trees is available to the reception of the park.

Other remarkable points

the door of the children of the Rhone deserves a turning. It has a grid out of wrought iron remarkably quite manufactured in the style of the 18th century, produced in 1900-1901, partly covered with gold sheets. It opens on a very broad prospect on the park. In front of, on the place of the general Leclerc, throne the monument of the “Children of the Rhone”, the sculptor Pagny (1887), showing France, calling with revenge, the eye rivetted on the border of the east. In the beginning, the park was not closed, and it is at the beginning of the 20th century that grids were added to the entries of the park.

the door of the College, which occurred Verguin.

On the central lawn, one can see “Centauresse and fauna”, a bronze of Courtet (1849).

Sculpture “Together for Peace and Justice”, composition out of bronze, realized by Xavier of Fraissinette. Installed in 1996 at the time of G7.

the large horse-gear illustrates with wonder open art in all its superb. It goes back to 1895. “Limonaire” is a true organ with perforated pasteboards 51 Gavioli keys of 1908. All the figures on which the children assoient themselves, were carried out and painted with the hand.

Trade and services

Distraction:

theater of Guignol
small train tourist
small train says “the lizard”
a miniature golf
ponies for children
a bowling pitch
a cycle-racing track
1 stand of fishing to the ducks
2 various horse-gears
other attractions

Restoration:

2 restaurants
2 refreshment bars
several stands of crepes and waffles, bores with dad, and confectionery

Remarkable places

The park contains also four roseries, but also of immense greenhouses, a botanical garden, a zoological garden and a cycle-racing track.

Zoological gardens

The zoological gardens were created at the same time as the park. At the beginning, one spoke only about one firm with teaching vocation, with some local wild animals, but little by little, installations multiply to accommodate new boarders and the park is transformed into true zoological gardens.

The zoo now accommodates animals come from the whole world. It extends on more than 6 hectares, and includes/understands several hundreds of animals, of which many large mammals, some being very rare, the such Lion of the Atlas, extinct in nature since 1922. A scientific collaboration for a long time joins together it at the National school Veterinary surgeon de Lyon.

In October 2006, the park inaugurated “the African Plain”, a space where 130 different animals - some pertaining to rare and protected species - cohabit in freedom on 2,5 hectares. The African plain is separate in five parts. The savanna part where one can find inter alia Watusi, zebras, antelopes, guinea fowls and cranes crowned, is widest. It communicates with the part reserved for the giraffes, where the “girafery” attracts the eye by its interesting architecture. A wet part shelters many races of birds, of which pelicans and pink flamingos, and lemurs on an island. A joint enclosure is reserved for the crocodiles, authorized to leave only at hot times. Lastly, at the end is plain, a house shelters the cabins of the zebras and antelopes, like some decorated sandy enclosures of rocks and stocks, where servals live, terrestrial Otocyon S and tortoises. The landscape designers and the architects privileged the visibility by melting the enclosures in the decoration.

The cycle-racing track

The Vélodrome is created in 1894, at the time of the World Fair being held, this year there, in Lyon. Races proceed there to expose the last models of bicycles. However, in 1909, Edouard Herriot, then Mayor of Lyon, made vote the transformation of the cycle-racing track into playing field, in order to avoid important expenditure necessary to its rehabilitation.

The cycle-racing track will survive and know great moments, like the championships of the world of 1989, on the occasion of which he was completely rehabilitated. Three clubs are installed there, and of the competitions are held there periodically.

But the future of the cycle-racing track is very dubious, and it could not survive a long time.

Roseries

Their origin is in the gift made in 1805 by Joséphine de Beauharnais of a collection of its Rosier S.

The park contains four roseries:

the collection of wild rose trees of the botanical garden: a hundred species.
the historical rosery, created in 1980 out of 1600 m ², included in the botanical garden with 570 varieties, and allowing to recall the history of the culture of the pinks.
the rosery of study and contest: it shelters new varieties, and, each year, the jury allots the price of the most beautiful pink of France.
the new international rosery inaugurated in 1964 including/understanding 60.000 rose trees representing the 320 most frequent varieties in France and abroad. It extends on 5 hectares.

It is the seat of the French company of the pinks