The Rue de la République () is a street located in the

1st First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and

2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds, The Second, or (The) 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Minute and second of arc, ...

arrondissements of

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, France. It links the Place de la Comédie in the north to the Place Le Viste in the south, just next to the Place Bellecour, via the

Place de la République The Place de la République (; English: Republic Square; known until 1879 as the Place du Château d'Eau, ) is a square in Paris, located on the border between the 3rd, 10th and 11th arrondissements. The square has an area of .Warner, p. 250 ...

. It is the main shopping street of the city. This zone is served by the Lyon Metro stations '' Hôtel de Ville–Louis Pradel'' (lines and ), ''

Cordeliers The Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen ( ), mainly known as Cordeliers Club ( ), was a Populism, populist List of political groups in the French Revolution, political club during the French Revolution from 1790 to 179 ...

'' (line ) and '' Bellecour'' (lines and ). The street belongs to the zone classified as

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

. A street with an identical name exists in many other French cities, most notably in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, where it links the Vieux-Port with the La Joliette neighbourhood.

History

After his appointment in 1853, the prefect of

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

and Mayor of Lyon Claude-Marius Vaïsse decided to create three new roads connecting the Place Bellecour to other major squares of the Presqu'île: * The Rue Victor-Hugo, connecting the Place Bellecour and the Place Carnot * The Rue de l'Impératrice, then renamed the Rue de l'Hôtel-de-Ville and then the Rue du Président-Édouard-Herriot, between the Place Bellecour and the

Place des Terreaux The Place des Terreaux () is a square located in the centre of Lyon, France, on the Presqu'île between the Rhône and the Saône rivers, at the foot of the hill of La Croix-Rousse in the 1st arrondissement of Lyon, 1st arrondissement. It borders ...

* The Rue Impériale (1862–1871), later renamed the Rue de Lyon (1871–1878), then Rue de la République (since August–September 1878),Maurice Vanario, ''Rues de lyon à travers les siècles'', ELAH, Lyon, 2002. which leads from the Place Louis Pradel (where are the Hôtel de Ville and the Opera) to the Place Bellecour. Two squares have been created on this occasion, both located along the Rue de la République: the Place Impériale (now the

) and the Place des Cordeliers. The street, long over a kilometre, follows a southwest–northeast axis from the Place Bellecour to the Place de la République, then a north–south axis to the Place Louis Pradel. In 1894, President of France Sadi Carnot was assassinated just near the Palace of Commerce, located on the Place des Cordeliers. A red stone on the Rue de la République marks the place of the assassination. In the 1970s, the construction of Lyon Metro Line A generated the digging of trenches on the entire street. The location of the Rue de la République, in the center of the city, and its large number of shops make the street one of the most frequented ones of Lyon by day and night. It is also known by its

apocope In phonology, apocope () is the omission (elision) or loss of a sound or sounds at the end of a word. While it most commonly refers to the loss of a final vowel, it can also describe the deletion of final consonants or even entire syllables. ...

, "Rue de la Ré".

Trades

Like the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Rue de la République attracts a large number of signs, including: * Luxury shops * Cheap shops, including Cheap (Prisunic), demolished in 2006, and the fast-food Mac Donald * Cinemas such as Pathé Lyon-Bellecour and Pathé Lyon-Cordeliers (ex Nefs 8) and CNP Odéon both located in adjacent streets * Major brands of distribution, such as Fnac Bellecour * Many restaurants and cafeterias

Notable monuments and buildings

The Rue de la République is lined with Haussman-style buildings, constructed in the 19th century when the street was created. * The former headquarters of the newspaper ''Le Progrès'', now occupied by Fnac Bellecour. There is a mosaic "RF" meaning "République Française". This building located at 85 Rue de la République was devised by Émile Étienne Guimet, initially for a theatre * Cinema Pathé surmounted by a

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

with a rooster at the top, a rare example of

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style in Lyon * The Palais du Commerce or Palais de la Bourse, headquarters of Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Lyon and the Bourse de Lyon, with the nearby Church of St. Bonaventure (Place des Cordeliers) * The Nouveau Grand Bazar, occupied by shops. The building looks very modern by contrast with the surrounding ones * The Hôtel de Ville and the Opéra Nouvel, both located at the north end of town, the Place de la Comédie.

Gallery

Théâtre Bellecour i.jpg, Fnac Bellecour, the former heardquarters of '' Le Progrès'' Palais Bourse Lyon 6.jpg, The Palais de la Bourse in 2019 Lyon - église Saint-Bonaventure - Autel et vue sur Chapelle Notre-Dame.jpg, Interior of the Church of St. Bonaventure on the Place des Cordeliers, just east of the Rue de la République Emplacement assassinat Sadi Carnot rue de la République à Lyon.jpg, Red stone marking the place of the assassination of President Sadi Carnot on the Rue de la République in 1894

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rue de la Republique 1st arrondissement of Lyon 2nd arrondissement of Lyon Republique World Heritage Sites in France Shopping districts and streets in France Pedestrian streets in France