Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon and its collections are the fruit of nearly five centuries of enrichment related to archaeological research. All the objects exposed come from excavations or accidental discoveries, often used in post-Roman constructions. A major part of the collections, including the famous Claudian Table (a speech by Emperor Claude in favour of the Gauls) and nearly 700 lapidary inscriptions, were initially preserved at the Museum of Fine Arts. These stones, the first "antiquities" identified in the Renaissance by epigraphists such as Jacob Spon (1647–85), Gabriel Syméoni or Claude Bellièvre, founded the knowledge on Lugdunum. Their accumulation in the cloister of the Palais Saint-Pierre motivated the creation of a museum dedicated in the 1970s.

The constitution of the collections was initially based on random discoveries linked to 19th century urban construction sites. Conservatives such as François Artaud (1767–38), pioneer of urban archaeology, probed the odeon and the amphitheatre, while Auguste Allmer and Paul Dissard searched a necropolis in Fourvière in 1885, exhuming coins, jewellery and elements of architecture. At the beginning of the 20th century, Camille Germain de Montauzan and Philippe Fabia, academics, conducted systematic campaigns (1911–33), revealing the mosaic of the Swastikas (1913) or a military degree in bronze. The quest for the amphitheatre led to major excavations from 1933 to the 1980s, eventually identifying a theatre and odeon, partially restored and exposed in an ephemeral Antiquarium.

The inauguration of the Gallo-Roman Museum in 1975 marked a turning point in Lyon's archaeology, coinciding with an awareness of the fragility of the "ground archives". The major urban works of the 1980s–2000s multiplied the diagnoses, revealing remains such as the temple of Fourvière or six Roman boats near the ancient port (Saint George's Park). The methods have evolved: excavations no longer target only prestigious monuments, but also study modest artifacts (tasks, coals), witnesses to everyday life. This approach has exponentially increased the volume of collections, enlightening Lugdunum's urban, economic and religious history, from its origins to its role as a Gallic commercial capital.

The museum, designed by Bernard Zehrfuss (Grand Prix de Rome), quietly integrates into the archaeological landscape, with a concrete structure masked by vegetation. Two "light guns" symbolically link ancient theatres to the permanent exhibition, organized as a helical ramp. Labeled a 20th century heritage, it also manages four additional sites: the thermal baths of rue des Farges (I–II century), and the Paleo-Christian churches of Saint-Just and Saint-Laurent-de-Choulans. Its very location, on the hill of Fourvière, recalls the foundation of Lugdunum in 43 BC, at the crossroads of the Gallic roads and the Roman power.

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