The grand emptiness
A vast red rectangle of nothing — grandeur by space, not ornament.
Claude — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Schölla Schwarz — CC BY 3.0 · Claude Cochet — Public domain · Nemo bis — CC BY-SA 3.0
Bellecour is among Europe's largest open squares — a vast red rectangle of packed gravel with no tree or building upon it, only Louis XIV on his horse. The emptiness itself is the grandeur: Lyon has wanted it exactly so since the seventeenth century. It is Lyon's point zero: distances are measured from it, metro lines cross beneath it, and the great shopping streets set out from it — pedestrian Rue de la République towards the opera, Rue Victor-Hugo towards Perrache — and every tourist route returns to it, willing or not. From its centre there is a clear view up to Fourvière hill and its basilica — the best spot to frame the hill whole — and at its edge stand a seasonal Ferris wheel and the city's tourism pavilion, where the Lyon City Card and the walking tours begin.
A vast red rectangle of nothing — grandeur by space, not ornament.
Hill and basilica framed whole from the square's centre.
A statue of Saint-Exupéry and his prince — Lyon's son at his square's edge.
Place Bellecour, 69002 Lyon
Pont BonaparteA bridge over the Saône linking the Presqu'île with the historic Vieux Lyon quar4 minutes walk4.4
The Grand Hôtel-DieuAn enormous building on the bank of the Rhône in Lyon, the city's hospital for e5 minutes walk4.4
Place Gailleton FountainA commemorative fountain in a small square south of Place Bellecour, raised in h6 minutes walk4.3
Saint-Jean Cathedral, Vieux LyonSaint-Jean is old Lyon's heart and the seat of the 'Primate of the Gauls' — Lyon7 minutes walk4.5
Basilica of Saint-Martin d'AinayAn eleventh-century Romanesque church in the Ainay quarter on the Presqu'île, th7 minutes walk4.9The emptiness has been deliberate since its creation as a royal square in the seventeenth century — parade ground, not garden. Revolutionaries demolished it, Napoleon restored it, and it remains Lyon's red carpet, unrolled for great occasions from the Festival of Lights to match screenings.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in Lyon near this square in 1900 — the marble column statue seats the writer with his Little Prince behind him. A charming photo stop most visitors miss despite the book's fame.
Make it your compass: Vieux Lyon west over the bridge, Croix-Rousse north up Rue de la République, the metro beneath for anything far. And genuinely start here at the tourist office if you are a city-card person.