Lugdunum (museum)

The museum seen from the Roman theatre

The Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon 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.

Museum entrance

Two glass bays of the museum (left).

Notable objects

Gallic bronze chariot from the Museum

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 wooden circus).

Other

• 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
• 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 site