Museum of Gallo-Roman Civilization

Brief information

The museum building was not placed next to the ancient monuments as a conspicuous new volume, but hidden in the slope of Fourvière Hill. This is important for understanding the site: the museum stands where the center of Roman Lugdunum once was, next to the ancient theater and odeon, but it tries not to compete with them externally.

Inside are finds from Lyon and its surroundings: statues, jewelry, everyday objects from the Roman period, items of Celtic culture, and a model of Lugdunum. This selection presents not an abstract “antiquity,” but the urban life of the capital of Gaul: from official texts and cult objects to tableware, ornaments, and things that may have ended up in the ground by chance during construction or archaeological work.

What to notice first

It makes sense to start with the museum’s very structure: the building is sheltered within the hill, so the modern architecture here works as a backdrop for the ancient ensemble next to the theater and odeon. This device connects the museum with the excavation site not only through its collection, but also through its position in space.

In the exhibition, you can compare the model of Lugdunum with individual objects. The model helps you imagine the city as a whole, while the objects show it at different scales: the Claudian Tablet preserves the text of an imperial speech, the Gallic calendar from Coligny belongs to another cultural tradition, and the “Circus Games” mosaic shows a chariot-racing subject rare for antiquity. Next to such objects, the Lyon-Vaise silver treasure is read differently: it is not simply a set of beautiful things, but property hidden in a cache during the Germanic invasion in the 3rd century.