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Origin and history

Hotel Bullioud is a private hotel located at 8 rue Juiverie, in the 5th arrondissement of Lyon. Built in the 16th century, it is best known for its gallery, commissioned by Antoine Bullioud, a member of an influential Lyon patrician family. The latter, the owner of two adjoining houses, wishes to connect them through cabinets and communication galleries. For this project, he appealed to architect Philibert Delorme, who returned from Italy in 1536, where he studied ancient and renaissant forms.

The gallery, supported by tubes without encroaching on the courtyard, is decorated with innovative motifs for the time in France: cornices, windows framed with ionic pilasters, frontons, and a lower frieze inspired by Marcellus' theatre in Rome. This frieze, with its triglyphs, bucranes and flowers, illustrates Italian influence and marks one of the first Renaissance architectural experiences in France. Delorme showed an art of synthesis, although his mastery of Italian codes was still incomplete.

The architectural ensemble, including purely aesthetically-functioned pavilions, prefigures classicism. The gallery, listed as a Historic Monument in 1920, inspired other Lyon constructions, such as the Change Lodge or the Opera House. The Bullioud hotel, accessible by a traboule at 8 rue Juiverie, bears witness to the cultural influence from Lyon to the Renaissance and the patronage of the local patrician families.

The 1985 restoration preserved the building, whose street façade remained sober, contrasting with the richness of the inner courtyard. The hotel also illustrates the role of traboules in Lyon urban planning, these typical passages linking streets and courtyards. The Bullioud family, active in the 15th and 16th centuries, marked the political and intellectual life of Lyon, occupying prestigious functions in the city.

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