Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The origins of the museum date back to the 17th century, when two brothers, Gaspard de Liergues and Balthasar de Monconys, gathered curiosity. In the 18th century, Jérôme-Jean Pestalozzi, a doctor at the Hôtel-Dieu, acquired this collection and enriched it before transmitting it to his son, Antoine-Joseph. The latter gave it to the City of Lyon in 1772, a date considered the official foundation of the museum, when the 6,000 books and objects of Adamoli were added to it. Opened to the public in 1777 under the care of the Academy of Sciences, the museum was first installed in a pavilion of the Town Hall.

From 1793 onwards, the collections left the town hall for the convent of the Dames-de-Saint-Pierre, where they were looted and abandoned during the Revolution. Balloted between the Terreaux and the Croix-Rousse, they experienced more destruction than the increase until the 19th century. From 1830 to 1909, the museum developed considerably, but cohabitation with the Museum of Fine Arts at the Palais Saint-Pierre became difficult, leading to aborted transfer projects, such as that to the Tête d'Or park.

In 1876 Émile Guimet, a Lyon industrialist, was given a mission in the East to study religions. On his return in 1879 he offered Lyon a museum of religions, built boulevard des Belges in a neoclassical style by architect Chatron. Guimet moved his collections to Paris in 1889, and the Lyon building became a successful restaurant, gym, theatre, and rink (Palais de Glace). It was only in 1913 that the site regained its museum vocation by welcoming again the museum of natural history and a museum of religions, bringing together prehistory, civilizations of the world, and natural sciences.

In 1991, the Guimet Museum officially became the museum of Natural History under the supervision of the General Council of the Rhône. Faced with the state of the building and conservation needs, a renovation project was adopted in 2000, leading to the creation of the Musée des Confluences. Inaugurated in 2014, the latter builds on 2.2 million objects collected over five centuries, while integrating modern cultural programming focused on the relationship between science and society.

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