The 4 UNESCO sites

The city, founded in 43 BC by the Romans, has developed in successive layers over 2000 years, starting from the Fourvière hill and spreading eastwards without the new layers totally erasing the old ones;  it is the displacement of its center of gravity that has allowed the city to save entire districts.

To cross Lyon is to take a magnificent journey through time, especially since each district has its own soul: the Gallo-Roman civilization in Fourvière, the Middle Ages-Renaissance in Vieux-Lyon, the Haussmann-like architecture on the Presqu’île-area, the typical manufacturing buildings of the silk weavers (Canuts) on the Croix-Rousse hill.

This architectural variation, which has been going on for more than two millennia, is a real red thread in Lyon’s urban planning and led to these four districts being listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites on December 5, 1998.