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Roots Earth in Lyon: audio stories about 45 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 45 places in Lyon, France, in Europe. The Lyon stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Lyon, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 45 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: lyon.md

The 45 places in Lyon with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière
  2. Lyon Cathedral
  3. Place Bellecour
  4. Vieux Lyon
  5. Parc de la Tête d'Or
  6. Musée des Confluences
  7. Place des Terreaux
  8. Lyon City Hall
  9. Bartholdi Fountain
  10. Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon
  11. Ancient Theatre of Fourvière
  12. La Croix-Rousse
  13. Traboules of Lyon
  14. Lyon Opera House
  15. Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon
  16. Basilica of Saint-Martin d'Ainay
  17. Saint-Nizier Church
  18. Metallic Tower of Fourvière
  19. Place des Jacobins
  20. Théâtre des Célestins
  21. Palais de la Bourse
  22. Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls
  23. Lugdunum Gallo-Roman Museum
  24. Institut Lumière
  25. Resistance and Deportation History Centre
  26. Historical Courthouse of Lyon
  27. Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon
  28. Saint-Paul Church
  29. Church of Saint-Bonaventure
  30. Tour Part-Dieu
  31. Halles de Lyon-Paul Bocuse
  32. Croix-Rousse Market
  33. La Guillotière
  34. Les Brotteaux
  35. La Part-Dieu
  36. Bouchons of Rue Mercière
  37. Parc de Gerland
  38. Île Barbe
  39. Stade de Gerland
  40. Loyasse Cemetery
  41. Montée de la Grande Côte
  42. Place Sathonay
  43. Le Transbordeur
  44. Jardin Rosa Mir
  45. Berges du Rhône

Is there an audio guide for Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière?

Yes. Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 45 Lyon places in the app, at 45.7625, 4.8225. Every one of the other 44 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Lyon

Open Roots Earth and choose Lyon. The city has its own map of places with all 45 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 45 places in Lyon, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 45 places in Lyon, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

Coordinates
45.7625, 4.8225
In one line
A gleaming votive basilica crowning Fourvière hill, built from 1872 to thank the Virgin Mary for sparing Lyon in the Franco-Prussian War. Its Romanesque-Byzantine towers and golden mosaics dominate the city skyline.

2. Lyon Cathedral

Coordinates
45.76056, 4.8275
In one line
Lyon's Gothic cathedral, seat of the Primate of the Gauls, rose between 1180 and 1476 beside the Saône. It hosted two medieval church councils and shelters a celebrated astronomical clock from the 14th century.

3. Place Bellecour

Coordinates
45.7575, 4.83222
In one line
A vast red-gravel expanse at the heart of the Presqu'île and one of Europe's largest pedestrian squares. Laid out as a royal square under Louis XIV, it centers on his equestrian statue of 1825.

4. Vieux Lyon

Coordinates
45.76222, 4.82667
In one line
One of Europe's most extensive Renaissance quarters, a maze of cobbled lanes, pastel facades and hidden traboule passageways at the foot of Fourvière hill. In 1964 it became the first protected historic district in France.

5. Parc de la Tête d'Or

Coordinates
45.78, 4.854
In one line
Lyon's great urban park, 117 hectares of lawns, lake and century-old trees landscaped by the Bühler brothers and opened in 1857.

6. Musée des Confluences

Coordinates
45.73291, 4.8183
In one line
A science and anthropology museum housed in a deconstructivist crystal and cloud of steel and glass at the meeting point of the Rhône and the Saône. Opened in 2014, it draws on collections of 2. 2 million objects.

7. Place des Terreaux

Coordinates
45.76748, 4.83349
In one line
Lyon's grand civic square, framed by the 17th-century City Hall and the Museum of Fine Arts. The monumental Bartholdi fountain, installed in 1892, anchors a space remade in 1994 with 69 water jets by artist Daniel Buren.

8. Lyon City Hall

Coordinates
45.7676, 4.835
In one line
Lyon's city hall has anchored the Presqu'île since Simon Maupin completed it in 1654, following construction begun in 1646; the council first met there in 1652 while work continued. Rebuilt after a 1674 fire under Jules Hardouin-Mansart, its sculpted facade and domed belfry preside over Place des Terreaux.

9. Bartholdi Fountain

Coordinates
45.76764, 4.83346
In one line
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty, designed this 21-ton lead fountain of a woman driving four plunging horses. Conceived for Bordeaux in 1857, it was finally inaugurated on Lyon's Place des Terreaux in 1892.

10. Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon

Coordinates
45.7669, 4.8336
In one line
One of France's leading fine-arts museums fills the Palais Saint-Pierre, a seventeenth-century Benedictine abbey on Place des Terreaux. Founded in 1801, its collections reach from ancient Egypt to Picasso, arranged around a quiet cloister garden dotted with Rodin bronzes.

11. Ancient Theatre of Fourvière

Coordinates
45.75972, 4.81972
In one line
Carved into Fourvière hill around 15 BC, this Roman theatre seated some ten thousand spectators in Lugdunum, capital of the Gauls. Enlarged in the second century and excavated in modern times, it now stages the summer Nuits de Fourvière festival.

12. La Croix-Rousse

Coordinates
45.77944, 4.8275
In one line
Known as the hill that works, this 254-meter slope is lined with tall-windowed buildings raised for the canuts, silk weavers whose 1831 revolt was among Europe's first workers' uprisings. Its steep stairways and traboules now shelter a village-like creative quarter.

13. Traboules of Lyon

Coordinates
45.7639, 4.8276
In one line
Hundreds of covered passageways thread through Lyon's buildings, linking parallel streets across Renaissance courtyards and spiral staircases. First built around the fourth century for access to water, they later carried silk for the canuts and sheltered Resistance fighters.

14. Lyon Opera House

Coordinates
45.76783, 4.83661
In one line
Jean Nouvel crowned the 1831 opera house with a vast glass barrel vault in 1993, keeping only the stone facades and foyer while tripling the volume within. The 1,100-seat home of the Opéra National de Lyon faces City Hall across Place de la Comédie.

15. Hôtel-Dieu de Lyon

Coordinates
45.75833, 4.83639
In one line
Lyon's grand former hospital, serving the sick beside the Rhône from the 12th century until 2010. Jacques-Germain Soufflot gave it its monumental riverfront wings and dome in the 18th century; today it holds shops, restaurants and a luxury hotel.

16. Basilica of Saint-Martin d'Ainay

Coordinates
45.75371, 4.82724
In one line
The best-preserved Romanesque church in Lyon, consecrated by Pope Paschal II in 1107 as the heart of a powerful Benedictine abbey. Its squat columns, carved capitals and glowing apse hide among the quiet streets of the Ainay quarter.

17. Saint-Nizier Church

Coordinates
45.76472, 4.83306
In one line
A Flamboyant Gothic church in the merchant heart of the Presqu'île, standing on a site of Christian worship linked to Lyon's martyrs of the year 177. Its two mismatched spires and lace-like facade record centuries of destruction and rebuilding.

18. Metallic Tower of Fourvière

Coordinates
45.76377, 4.82227
In one line
An iron lattice tower of 1894 rising behind the Fourvière basilica, often called Lyon's little Eiffel Tower. Once an observation deck with a restaurant and lift, it now serves as a broadcast mast whose summit is the highest point in the city.

19. Place des Jacobins

Coordinates
45.7605, 4.83355
In one line
An elegant square where twelve streets of the Presqu'île converge, named after a Dominican convent whose friars settled near Ainay in 1235 and began building a convent and church in 1240. Its tiered white fountain of 1885 honours four artists of Lyon beneath the rich facades of the 19th-century city.

20. Théâtre des Célestins

Coordinates
45.7599, 4.8315
In one line
One of the oldest theatres in France still playing on its original site, active since 1792 on the grounds of a former Celestine monastery. Gaspard André's ornate Italian-style playhouse of 1877 survived fire and remains Lyon's grand stage for drama.

21. Palais de la Bourse

Coordinates
45.764, 4.8358
In one line
A monumental Second Empire trade palace inaugurated by Napoleon III in 1860, designed by René Dardel for Lyon's merchants and silk brokers. Still home to the Chamber of Commerce, it recalls the city's centuries as a marketplace of Europe.

22. Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls

Coordinates
45.77056, 4.83056
In one line
Fragmentary remains of the Roman amphitheatre built in 19 AD beside the federal sanctuary where delegates of sixty Gallic tribes assembled. In 177 AD it became the execution ground of Lyon's first Christian martyrs, including the young slave Blandina.

23. Lugdunum Gallo-Roman Museum

Coordinates
45.76042, 4.81991
In one line
An archaeological museum opened in 1975, buried by architect Bernard Zehrfuss inside Fourvière hill beside Lyon's Roman theatres. Its concrete ramps descend past the bronze speech of Emperor Claudius, a rare Gallic calendar and superb Roman mosaics.

24. Institut Lumière

Coordinates
45.74521, 4.87041
In one line
A museum and cinematheque in the Lumière family mansion at Monplaisir, where Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the Cinématographe in 1895. Founded in 1982, it preserves the first films ever made and hosts the annual Festival Lumière.

25. Resistance and Deportation History Centre

Coordinates
45.74694, 4.83581
In one line
A memorial museum in the former military medical school on avenue Berthelot, where Klaus Barbie's Gestapo tortured members of the French Resistance. Opened in 1992, it documents occupation, resistance and deportation through the voices of witnesses.

26. Historical Courthouse of Lyon

Coordinates
45.7614, 4.8273
In one line
Lyon's neoclassical courthouse of 1835 to 1845 by Louis-Pierre Baltard, known as the Palace of the Twenty-Four Columns for its colonnade above the Saône. Its assize court tried Klaus Barbie for crimes against humanity in 1987.

27. Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon

Coordinates
45.78417, 4.8525
In one line
Lyon's museum of contemporary art, founded in 1984 and rehoused in 1995 in a Renzo Piano building at the Cité Internationale. It collects works created on site by artists and anchors the city's contemporary art biennale.

28. Saint-Paul Church

Coordinates
45.76611, 4.82722
In one line
One of the oldest parish churches in Lyon, documented in the 9th century and rebuilt in Romanesque style from the 12th century. Its octagonal lantern tower rises over the Saint-Paul quarter, the Renaissance bankers' district of Vieux Lyon.

29. Church of Saint-Bonaventure

Coordinates
45.7634, 4.8364
In one line
A Gothic church rebuilt from 1325, and named for the saint who died in Lyon in 1274. It was the only medieval building spared when Second Empire planners cut new streets through the Presqu'île.

30. Tour Part-Dieu

Coordinates
45.76111, 4.85361
In one line
Lyon's cylindrical tower of 1977, rising 164. 9 meters to a pyramid summit that everyone calls Le Crayon, the pencil. Built for the bank Crédit Lyonnais, it holds offices below and one of Europe's highest hotels on top.

31. Halles de Lyon-Paul Bocuse

Coordinates
45.7628, 4.8507
In one line
Lyon's covered food market, transplanted from the Cordeliers to Part-Dieu in 1971 and renamed for chef Paul Bocuse in 2007. Some sixty merchants supply the city's chefs and its Sunday oyster ritual under one glass-fronted roof.

32. Croix-Rousse Market

Coordinates
45.7745, 4.8318
In one line
A morning market running nearly a kilometer along boulevard de la Croix-Rousse, held every day except Monday. On the plateau where silk weavers once laboured, it keeps the neighbourhood's stubborn village rhythm alive.

33. La Guillotière

Coordinates
45.7553, 4.8428
In one line
Lyon's ancient gateway quarter at the left-bank end of the Rhône bridge, an independent town until 1852. Waves of arrivals, from Italian families to Armenian grocers to North African traders, have made it the city's most cosmopolitan crossroads.

34. Les Brotteaux

Coordinates
45.76944, 4.85028
In one line
A nineteenth-century quarter of broad streets and bourgeois apartment houses on land reclaimed from the Rhône's flood plain. Home to Lyon's grandest addresses and the ornate former Brotteaux railway station of 1908, now a brasserie and auction house.

35. La Part-Dieu

Coordinates
45.76111, 4.85722
In one line
France's second-largest business district after La Défense, built from the 1960s on former cavalry barracks east of the Rhône. Its towers, shopping centre, library and high-speed rail station form the daily engine room of working Lyon.

36. Bouchons of Rue Mercière

Coordinates
45.7627, 4.8332
In one line
Lyon's most concentrated restaurant street, where centuries-old facades shelter traditional bouchons serving quenelles, tripe and praline tart. Once the city's Renaissance printing quarter, Rue Mercière is now the noisy, fragrant heart of Lyonnais gastronomy.

37. Parc de Gerland

Coordinates
45.723, 4.824
In one line
A contemporary park laid out by landscape architect Michel Corajoud on former industrial land beside the Rhône, in Lyon's Gerland district. Its giant herbaceous garden, sports fields and skate park have earned it Remarkable Garden status.

38. Île Barbe

Coordinates
45.79722, 4.83167
In one line
An island in the Saône that held one of the oldest monasteries in Gaul, founded in the fifth century and burned in 1562.

39. Stade de Gerland

Coordinates
45.72389, 4.83222
In one line
Tony Garnier's monumental stadium of 1926, commissioned by mayor Édouard Herriot and protected as a historic monument since 1967. Olympique Lyonnais played here for sixty-five years; today its arcades ring the home ground of Lyon's rugby club.

40. Loyasse Cemetery

Coordinates
45.76222, 4.81194
In one line
Lyon's first municipal cemetery, opened in 1807 on the Fourvière hill and often called the city's Père-Lachaise. Its elaborate nineteenth-century tombs hold mayors, artists and industrialists, including Édouard Herriot and museum founder Émile Guimet.

41. Montée de la Grande Côte

Coordinates
45.7716, 4.8316
In one line
The steep historic spine of the Croix-Rousse slopes, climbed by silk workers for centuries and lined with canut houses, traboules and artisan shops. The street rises from the Terreaux quarter to a garden esplanade overlooking the rooftops of Lyon.

42. Place Sathonay

Coordinates
45.76912, 4.83044
In one line
A leafy nineteenth-century square at the foot of the Croix-Rousse slopes, laid out in 1817 on the grounds of a medieval convent. Lion fountains, chestnut trees and pétanque players give it the air of a village inside the city.

43. Le Transbordeur

Coordinates
45.78389, 4.86083
In one line
A nineteenth-century water-pumping plant in Villeurbanne reborn in 1989 as Lyon's best-loved rock venue. New Order played opening night, and since then its 1,800-capacity hall has hosted everyone from the Pixies to Rammstein.

44. Jardin Rosa Mir

Coordinates
45.78052, 4.83206
In one line
A secret courtyard garden off the Grande Rue de la Croix-Rousse, built shell by shell over twenty-five years by Spanish exile Jules Senis to honor his mother and a vow made while fighting cancer.

45. Berges du Rhône

Coordinates
45.754, 4.838
In one line
Five kilometers of the Rhône's left bank, reclaimed from parked cars in 2007 and turned into Lyon's favorite promenade, where bike paths, gardens and barge cafés run from Parc de la Tête d'Or to Gerland.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

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  • Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection
  • Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities

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