Place Bellecour
Equestrian bronze king riding bareback, replacing a statue melted for cannons in the Revolution.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Place Bellecour in Lyon centers on the bronze equestrian statue of Louis XIV, sculpted by Francois-Frederic Lemot and raised in October 1825 after being hauled from Paris in pieces. It follows the two-century-old story Lyonnais parents told their children about why the king rides bareback, with no saddle or stirrups, and traces an earlier statue on the same spot, melted down for cannons during the Revolution. The bronze horse alone was dragged across France by twenty-four horses over twelve days. Look up at the king's bare legs as you stand where generations of Lyonnais children once stood.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Place Sathonay
Shaded square with a soldier's equestrian statue, twin lion fountains, and a stepped amphitheater at the foot of Croix-Rousse.
Place des Terreaux
Central square where a checkerboard pavement and a monumental horse-drawn fountain face the historic city hall.
Hôtel de Ville de Lyon
Grand seventeenth-century town hall scarred by fire, revolution, and a revolutionary tribunal's cellars.
Place des Jacobins
Marble fountain crowded with sirens and seashells, honoring four Lyonnais artists on a landlocked square.
Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon-Fourvière
Bronze Roman speech tablet and hillside museum built into the ruins of a Roman theatre and odeon.
Metallic tower of Fourvière
Steel observation tower echoing the Eiffel Tower's summit, seized for scrap by wartime occupiers before becoming a broadcast mast.