About this place
Standing at the foot of the Fourvière hill in the heart of Vieux Lyon, the Cathedral of Saint-Jean-Baptiste is the seat of the Archbishop of Lyon, who bears the ancient title of Primate of the Gauls. Begun around 1180 on the ruins of an earlier church and completed in 1476, it blends the heavy rounded forms of the Romanesque with the soaring pointed windows of the Gothic. Its west front still bears the scars of the Wars of Religion, when Protestant forces smashed much of its sculpture in 1562. The cathedral's greatest treasure is its astronomical clock, documented since the fourteenth century and rebuilt in 1661 by Guillaume Nourrisson, which stands some nine metres tall, tracks the sun, moon, and stars, and remains the only clock in France still running on its original mechanism.
Key facts
- 1180 year — Construction of the cathedral began around this year on an older church
- 1476 year — The cathedral was completed after nearly three centuries of work
- 9 metres — The height of the famous astronomical clock inside the cathedral
📍 Rue Mandelot, 69005, Lyon