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Museums in Lyon, France | |
| Lyon has over 20 museums covering a wide range of topics. | ||
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If you like museums, you'll find plenty to visit in Lyon. Here are some you might want to consider. The Musée des Beaux Arts (Fine Arts Museum) is housed in a beautiful 17th century Benedictine abbey, just across the street from the Hôtel de Ville (map). The cloisters and lovely garden, with plants and sculptures, set the stage for your visit. The museum's collections range from Egyptian antiquities to the impressionists to more modern art. It includes works by Monet, Renoir, Picasso, Chagall, and many others. It also has a small tea room where you can enjoy lunch or a drink. More... Lyon's newest museum is the Musée des Confluences. The name reflects both its location, at the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône Rivers, and its focus, which is to create conversations between the sciences to understand the history of life and humanity. Its permanent collections explore the natural sciences and the human sciences, with exhibits ranging from insects to Egyptology, from European prehistory to artefacts from Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Through these collections the museum explores origin stories of the world—where do we come from?; the human species and our interactions with others species, both today and in the past—who are we?; the human theater—what do we do and how do we build community; and visions of the beyond—where are we going? The exhibits are beautifully displayed and explained, helping make the links between and among civilizations. The Musée des Confluences is housed in a striking modern building, which opened in 2014. Rather than a large entrance facade, the building presents a variety of facets. The museum's fluid structure is a metaphor for its broad approach to civilization and enhances the ideas on which the museum is based. More... The Musée Gallo-Romain, located next to the ancient theater on Fourvière Hill (map), is a beautifully laid out museum that presents many aspects of public and private life in Gallo-Roman times. There are lovely mosaics, sarcophagi, and life sized (and bigger) statues and carvings. You can see the huge bronze fragments of the Claudian Tablet, as well as other reminders of the economic and social importance of Lugdunum (ancient Lyon). More... The Musée des Tissus et Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Textile Museum and the Museum of Decorative Arts) are located in adjoining hôtels particuliers near the Rhône (map). The silk industry has been important to Lyon for centuries, and you'll see dresses, decorative fabrics, models of looms, religious vestments and more dating back as far as the 12th century. You can trace fashions and styles over the years through the exhibits. The tiny Maison des Canuts, in the Croix-Rousse area of Lyon, has old fashioned looms and other equipment from the silk industry. You can visit on your own, and occasional guided tours also include demonstrations of some of the machines. The Decorative Arts Museum showcases furniture, vases, tapestries, ancient musical instruments (with occasional live concerts using them), silver, and hand carved wooden objects. Although many are from Lyon, other objects come from as far away as China. If you like cinema, head to the Institut Lumière, former home of the Lumière brothers. Although people may assume that the cinema was invented in Hollywood, in fact the Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, invented the Cinematograph in Lyon in 1895. Fittingly, it is located at 25, Rue du Premier-Film (map). The Institut is both a museum and an archive, and the focus of an annual Lyon Film Festival. More... These are just a few of the museums of Lyon. There are others devoted to Guignols, or puppets, printing (historically an important Lyon industry), modern art, sacred art, folk art, and more. And over 20 museums are included in the Lyon City Card, so you can take advantage of many of them for a reasonable price.
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Below, Roman Mosaic from the Musée Gallo-Romaine.
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