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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The church of Saint-Denis-de-la-Croix-Rousse came into being in the 17th century, when the Augustinians who had been undressed settled in 1624 in this Lyon area then outside the ramparts. In 1629, the first stone of their church, dedicated to Saint Denis at the request of Archbishop Denys de Marquemont, was laid thanks to donations. The building, destroyed during the Revolution, was restored to worship in 1803 by Cardinal Fesch, uncle of Bonaparte, but the Augustins, expelled, did not return.

The major restoration began in 1830 under the Monarchy of July, led by architect Antoine-Marie Chenavard. The parish priest Jean-Matthieu Chazette oversees the work: a sober baroque façade, a neo-Roman central nave inspired by the old convent church, and Byzantine interior decorations. In 1847, the current choir was built by Forest, Chenavard's successor, and two lateral wings were added. The organs, acquired in 1838, were installed in 1848.

The parish priest Artru (1853–75) enriched the church with stained glass, statues (including a Saint Denis and a Saint Joseph carved by Fabisch), and a golden frieze adorning the choir. His successor, Zacharie Paret (1875–98), added the chapel Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs (1891) and decorated the side chapels with imitation marbles and paintings. Auguste Perrodin, a collaborator of Viollet-le-Duc, made the frescoes of the dome in 1885, including a Christ in majesty surrounded by Lyon saints.

The organ, originally built by Guetton-Dangon around 1880, was replaced in 1968 by an instrument of Dunand House, harmonized in the spirit of the eighteenth century. Listed in the 1986 inventory of historic monuments, the building preserves seven protected objects, including a reliquary of Saint Denis, a confessional, and a painting by Germain Panthot depicting Saint Fortunat.

The church, located on Rue Hénon, bears witness to the workers' history of the Croix-Rousse, emblematic of the canuts. Its furniture and decorations reflect the artistic evolutions of the 19th century, mixing neoclassicism, romanticism and Byzantine influences, while preserving traces of its Augustinian past.

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