Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Gothic portal of decapitated saints, scarred by a sixteenth-century religious riot never repaired.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Cathedrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Lyon opens at the west front, where hundreds of carved figures ring the doorways and dozens stand headless, damage frozen since a Protestant raid on the second of May 1562. It follows the Baron des Adrets and his soldiers as they sacked the cathedral, melted its bells and stripped its treasury, and even draws in John Calvin, who wrote to condemn what was done in his cause. You'll hear how the cathedral's own astronomical clock, silenced that same day, waited a century for a clockmaker named Guillaume Nourrisson to bring it back to life. Stand at the west portals as you listen, and count how many faces are missing.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Basilique Saint-Bonaventure de Lyon
Gothic-era Franciscan church holding a small relic once venerated by kings and craft guilds alike.
Île Barbe
River island monastery repeatedly sacked by raiders, ultimately dismantled by paperwork and a garden.
Basilica of Notre Dame of Fourvière
Byzantine-Romanesque hilltop church of marble and mosaic, its facade carved over decades by hand.
Église Saint-Nizier
Flamboyant Gothic church with twin bell towers built four centuries apart, still mismatched.
Église Saint-Paul - Chapelle Sainte-Marguerite
Romanesque church rebuilt across three generations after Revolution-era ruin, with a hidden fifteenth-century fresco chapel.
Temple du Change
Baroque-neoclassical money-exchange hall turned Protestant church, with a Cicero inscription over its door.