Lugdunum (museum)

The museum seen from the Roman theatre

The Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon-Fourvière (French: Musée gallo-romain de Lyon-Fourvière) is a museum on the Gallo-Roman civilisation in Lyon (Roman Lugdunum), previously located in the heart of the Roman city and now sited near the city's Roman theatre on the Fourvière hill, half-buried into the hillside on the edge of the archaeological site. The new building was designed by Bernard Zehrfuss and opened in 1975. Internally, it is formed of a concrete spiral ramp descending and branching out into the display rooms. It is managed and operated by the Rhone department jointly with the archaeological museum of Saint-Romain-en-Gal. As well as displaying its own permanent collections of Roman, Celtic and pre-Roman material (inscriptions, statues, jewellery, everyday objects), a plan-relief of the ancient town and scale models of its major monuments such as the theatre and the Odeon, it also regularly hosts temporary exhibitions.

Circus Mosaic

Main article: Circus Games Mosaic

Discovered in the Ainay district in 1806, this mosaic shows a circus during a chariot race, making it one of the few ancient representations of such a race (Lyon itself had a circus, the place of which has not been discovered).

Other Objects

• the Gallic Coligny calendar
• fragments of the decoration of the Altar of Rome and Augustus, from the federal sanctuary of the three Gauls
• the Lyon Tablet, a speech by Claudius
• large mosaics such as La mosaïque de Bacchus and the Mosaïque aux Svastikas (Swastikas Mosaic).
• the Taurobolic Altar, dedicated in 160 to restore the health of Antoninus Pius
• many large Dionysiac sarcophagi, including the Sarcophagus of the Triumph of Bacchus
• the Lyon-Vaise Hoard of dishes, jewellery and silver statuettes buried during a 3rd-century Germanic invasion

External links

• Official Musée gallo-romain de Fourvière website—(in French)
• Official Gallo-Roman Museum website—(in English)