Iconic Architecture and Landmarks in Lyon

A magnificent seventeenth-century Baroque structure dominates the eastern side of Place des Terreaux with its heavy stone arches and slate roofs. A prominent equestrian relief of King Henri IV sits aggressively in the centre of the main facade. The courtyard features elaborate stonework and gilded details, hinting at the immense wealth of the city's historical merchant class. You can rarely go inside outside of special heritage days, but the exterior commands attention. It anchors the political and visual identity of the central peninsula.

The façade that Jacques-Germain Soufflot designed along the Rhône in the 18th century is more than 300 metres long, crowned by a dome that dominates the right bank. Soufflot later designed the Panthéon in Paris. The former hospital, where Rabelais once practised, has been converted into a hotel, shops and restaurants around its glazed courtyards.

Built between 1909 and 1914 as part of Tony Garnier's visionary Industrial City project, this immense iron-framed hall once sheltered the livestock market. Today it hosts concerts, trade fairs and the Lumière Festival ceremonies. The span is over 200 metres long, and the rhythm of its metal arches is hard to ignore.

Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava designed this high-speed train station to resemble a massive bird taking flight. Huge swooping ribs of white concrete and steel arch over the tracks, supported by tensioned cables. The interior concourse is flooded with light through vast expanses of angled glass. Approaching from the highway, the structure looks entirely alien compared to the flat agricultural land surrounding the airport. It is a pure, dramatic expression of late-twentieth-century structural expressionism.

Thick, austere stone walls define the only entirely Romanesque church remaining in the city. The eleventh-century architecture lacks the flying buttresses and massive glass windows of later Gothic structures, creating a heavy, grounded atmosphere. The square bell tower is unusually stocky, designed for stability rather than soaring height. Inside, ancient granite columns salvaged from Roman ruins support the low, dark arches. It sits quietly in a wealthy residential district, offering a severe contrast to the ornate Renaissance buildings across the river.

A Gothic church with two uneven towers rises on the Presqu'île, its flamboyant stonework and Renaissance portal by Philibert Delorme a surprise in a mostly commercial district. The crypt marks the site of an early Christian shrine. The church sits beside Rue Mercière, so it pairs naturally with dinner.

Italian architect Renzo Piano curved a long, sweeping complex of terracotta-coloured pavilions directly along the arc of the Rhône river. A glass-covered pedestrian street runs the entire length of the complex, separating the office blocks from the massive public park. The double-skin glass facades regulate temperature while reflecting the surrounding trees. A massive amphitheatre anchors one end, mimicking the shape of the ancient Roman ruins across town. It represents a highly controlled, unified piece of contemporary urban design.

A row of twenty-four Corinthian columns stands along the Saône quay like a Greek temple dropped into Vieux Lyon. Louis-Pierre Baltard designed the building in the 1830s, and the façade gives the court its nickname. The courtroom hosted the trial of Klaus Barbie in 1987, a landmark in French legal history.

At 165 metres, the Part-Dieu tower with its pointed roof is nicknamed the Crayon, and Lyonnais use it as a compass point. Completed in the 1970s, it was the city's tallest building until the Incity tower overtook it in 2015. The business district around it shows how seriously Lyon took postwar modernism.