La Guillotière
Riverside quarter shaped by a rebuilt medieval bridge, named for a forgotten innkeeper, not a blade.
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About this audio guide
This guide to La Guillotière traces a river crossing named not for a blade but for a long-forgotten innkeeper called Guillot, and the string of bridges Lyon kept losing here, including a wooden span that buckled under the crusading armies of Richard the Lionheart in 1190. It follows the stone rebuilds that dragged on for over a century after 1558, and how every version of that crossing funneled pilgrims and travelers into a neighborhood that grew up rough, cheap and industrial around glassworks and candle factories. Listen for how little of that history survives beneath the concrete span you'd cross today.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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