Parc Sergent Blandan

This guide to Parc Sergent Blandan in Lyon follows a nineteenth-century fortress built under King Louis Philippe, one of Europe's longest masonry barracks, from its garrison days through the decades after the army finally left and the gates simply rusted shut. It traces what quietly moved into that long silence, and the survey the city ran before redevelopment, counting the birds and plants already thriving in the rubble.