The Rue Victor-Hugo () is a

pedestrian street Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town restricted to use by people on foot or ...

in the 2nd arrondissement 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 ...

, in the Ainay district of the

Presqu'île The Presqu'île (; literally "almost an island" in French, meaning "peninsula")''Le petit Robert de la langue française'' 2007 is the central part of the City of Lyon, France. Extending from the foot of the Croix-Rousse hill in the north to t ...

quarter, reputed to be one of the most known shopping area of Lyon. From north to south, it connects the

Place Bellecour The Place Bellecour () is a large square in the centre of Lyon, France, to the north of the Ainay district. Measuring 312 m by 200 m (6.2 ha or 15 acres), it is one of the largest open squares (without any patches of greenery or ...

to the Place Carnot. Beyond the Place Bellecour, the

Rue de la République The Rue de la République () is a street located in the 1st and 2nd arrondissements of Lyon, 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 Républ ...

is its natural extension, thus creating one of the biggest

pedestrian A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, by wheelchair or with other mobility aids. Streets and roads often have a designated footpath for pedestrian traffic, called the '' sidewalk'' in North American English, the ''pavement'' in British En ...

streets in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. The street is served by metro stations ''Perrache'', ''Bellecour'' and ''Ampère - Victor Hugo''. It 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 ...

by UNESCO.

Description

There are mainly cafeterias, restaurants, shops, services and hotels. In its center, it includes a pedestrian square with trees, the Place Ampère which gave, with the street itself, the name of the metro station it serves, ''Ampère - Victor Hugo''. The street is mostly surrounded by three to six-floor buildings of the 19th century. There are two older houses on corners of the Rue Sainte-Hélène and the Rue Jarente. Most doors have beautiful sculptures and decorations (heads of lions, snakes ...).

History

The street should have been named Rue d'Euripide and Rue du Caire, but these names were ultimately never used. It was first named Rue de la Direction, then Grande Rue Royale, and was named Rue de Bourbon in September 1816 as tribute to Lyon alderman Jacques Bourbon. Planned in 1775 by Perrache and drawn during the First Empire, it would allow the emperor to see the equestrian statue of Louis XIV located on the

from his palace whose construction was scheduled at the Confluence. The street met the Place Bellecour in 1841 and the digging of the road was eventually completed in 1842. Since its inception, it sheltered aristocracy of Lyon. The street was renamed Rue de la République from 1848 to 1852 before retook its original name. Its current name was assigned by the deliberation of the

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

on 26 May 1885. The street was opened in five steps: first in 1817 from the Place Napoléon to the Rue des Ramparts d'Ainay, then in 1920 from the Rue Sainte-Hélène to the Rue Sala, then in 1832 from the Rue Jarente to the Rue Sainte-Hélène, then in 1839 on the garden of the Hotel, and finally in 1841 from the Hotel to the Place Bellecour. The odd numbers 1 to 27 were built between 1834 and 1848, numbers 29 to 67 between 1820 and 1857, and the even numbers from 2 to 16 in 1844 and numbers 18 to 68 between 1826 and 1864. At No. 25 and 27, an institution founded by Chalotte Dupin and called the Œuvre des Charlottes was installed, which became the Sisters of St. Joseph. In 1974, the street was ripped to the needs of the construction of the Line A of the metro. On 8 December 1976, after a two-year work and despite the traders' opposition and the mayor's lack of enthusiasm, it was transformed into a pedestrian street and took its current shape, which made it the second pedestrian street of Lyon and France (the first one was the Rue de la République, a few months earlier). On 27 March 1984, gendarmer general Guy Delfosse was killed in a bank attack by the terrorist group Action directe.

References

{{coord, 45, 45, 15, N, 4, 49, 48, E, type:landmark_source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title 2nd arrondissement of Lyon Hugo, Victor World Heritage Sites in France Pedestrian streets in France Shopping districts and streets in France