Odeon of Lyon

About

Lugdunum is one of the main Roman monuments visible in Lyon. Located next to the Théâtre Antique de Fourvière and like him backed by the hill of Fourvière, near its summit, it forms a remarkable archaeological couple, rare in the Roman world. In Gaul, only Vienna also has a theatre accompanied by an odeon.

Built at the extreme end of the first century or at the beginning of the second century, it can accommodate up to 3,000 spectators, for musical performances or public readings, or serve as a meeting room. Abandoned at the end of the Roman period, it was exploited in the Middle Ages as a quarry of building materials, then was almost completely buried under the rubble. Drawings drawn in the 16th century show that only emerges in the midst of the imposing ruins, vestiges of the powerful wall that girded the building.

The scholars are divided on the interpretation of these ruins: their arching suggests that it is a theatre, while the religious see it as the amphitheater of the martyrs of Lyon. The controversy lasted centuries, until an archaeological site of unprecedented magnitude...