Heritage classified
The chapel (Box C 252p): inscription by decree of 13 December 1967 - The facades and roofs of the Economat, the Directorate, the K and A pavilions on the Place d'Arsonval and on the entrance of the hospital, the D pavilions and inside the amphitheatre; streetlights and entrance gates, Place d'Arsonval; Octogonal piles of fences, Rockefeller Avenue and Viala Street; chimneys : inscription by decree of 31 January 1989 - A. the frame, materialized by : the roads, their drawing (pans cut at the crossings of the alleys, width) , their sidewalks, the green spaces that border them ; in order to preserve the hierarchy that organizes them, the English courts and the fence wall Viala Street (south of Building 21) and Rockefeller Avenue. B. Topography: the large southern slope and its large staircase; the elevation to the north with the guardrail which materializes the separation between the two low and middle zones. C. the remaining underground network and the elements of architecture that accomodate it: glass pavements bringing natural lighting for example. D. buildings (see cadastral plan attached to the decree). 1. the buildings planned to disappear in the current project and those for which reconstruction seemed preferable in view of the deep denaturation which they suffered: pavilions E, F, I, H, P, V; buildings to the north: 10, 9, 8, 26, 27, 6, 5, 3, 28, 30, 15, 14, 13, B; in the centre: buildings 19 and 25; East: Building 23; south: transformer (No. 24) and STU building located between pavilions S and T. 2. all other buildings are listed as Historic Monuments. The principles that should guide the conservation of these buildings are defined in the protocol annexed to the protection order: a: inscription of facades and roofs with the exception of parasitic elements added in surface extension or elevation; - the pavilions to the south: S, T and U; - the pavilions and buildings located in the middle part: O, N, M, L, J and K (extension to all facades and roofs), A (extension to all facades and roofs), 4 (extension to all facades and roofs), 18, C, G, R, 21; - the buildings to the north: 7, 12 and 22, as well as Pavilion X, its courtyard, its west-east traffic corridors (ground-patio level: between the stairwells, ground-patio level +1: between the west and east buildings, ground-patio level + 2 and ground-patio + 3: between the west building and the west stairwell) and a religious cell located on the ground-patio + 3 of the west building (plans attached to the decree); b: inscription of facades, roofs and frame of building 2 (Box BR 4): inscription by order of 20 November 2006
Key figures
| Édouard Herriot - Mayor of Lyon |
Project initiator and defender of a modern hospital. |
| Tony Garnier - Architect |
Designer of the pavilion plan inspired by the industrial city. |
| Louis Thomas - Architect |
Author of the chapel, not originally planned. |
| Georges Salendre - Lyon sculptor |
Author of Christ of the chapel. |
| Jean Creyssel - Professor of Surgery |
Founder of the Centre for the Great Burns (1957). |
| Jean-Michel Dubernard - Surgeon |
Directed the first hand transplant (1998). |
Origin and history
The Édouard Herriot Hospital, originally called Grange-Blanche, is an ambitious project launched in 1909 by Édouard Herriot, Mayor of Lyon, to meet the needs of a growing population in eastern Rhône. The architect Tony Garnier, inspired by his concept of Cité industrielle, designs a pavilion complex of 32 buildings connected by underground galleries, breaking with monolithic hospitals like the Hôtel-Dieu. The 15.5-hectare land, acquired for 1 million francs, hosts a complex organized into three zones: general services in the north, health pavilions in the centre, and an isolated area for contagious diseases in the south. Construction, which began in 1913, was slowed down by World War I and financial difficulties, bringing the final cost to 206 million francs instead of the planned 13 million.
Inaugurated on 14 July 1933 with 1,544 beds distributed in 22 nursing lodges, the hospital integrates innovations such as basements dedicated to laboratories and an underground 2.5 km network for logistics. The pavilions, oriented in "U" to maximize sunlight, separate the "septic" (ground floor) and "septic" (top floor) floors. A chapel, added despite Herriot's initial reservations, was consecrated in 1934. By 1935, the addition of an anticancer center increased the capacity to 1,723 beds. The organization is based on hospital sisters, with one sister-mother per service, except for the neurology pavilion, entirely run by civilian staff.
The hospital quickly became a centre of medical excellence. In the 1930s-1950s, he hosted first surgeries and university clinics, despite tensions between the municipality and the civilian Hospices of Lyon. During the Second World War, it was partially requisitioned by the Germans, resulting in reorganizations such as the transfer of infectious patients. In the 1950s, the capacity exceeded 2,700 beds, and the common rooms gradually gave way to individual rooms. The following decades saw major technological advances: installation of a lithotripter in 1984 (first in France for the treatment of kidney stones), a scanner in 1985, and a magnetic resonance spectrometer in 1989.
The twentieth century also marks historical medical achievements, such as the first allograft of the hand in 1998 and the first double transplant of hands and forearms in 2000, led by Professor Jean-Michel Dubernard. The Centre for the Treatment of Great Burners, opened in 1957 by Professor Jean Creyssel, becomes a world reference, especially after welcoming the victims of the Feyzin disaster in 1966. In 2017, the Pierre Colson Burning Centre, a result of the merger with Saint-Joseph-Saint-Luc Hospital, confirmed this expertise. At the same time, the hospital is being modernised: in 2011, an innovative outpatient clinic was established, and in 2014, its oncology department was labeled a European centre of excellence.
In architectural terms, the hospital is partially classified as a historical monument: the chapel (inscribed in 1967), the facades of several pavilions and elements of the underground network (1989 and 2006). Tony Garnier, assisted by Louis Thomas for the chapel and sculptor Georges Salendre, applies his principles of garden city, with green spaces, hierarchical paths and functional buildings. Despite partial demolitions (such as the Monnoyer chimneys in 1996 for sanitary reasons), the site retains a remarkable urban and landscape frame. Today, the hospital remains a symbol of Lyon's hospital heritage, combining architectural heritage and medical innovation.
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