Lyon

:This article is about the French city. For other usages, see Lyon (disambiguation) and Lyons (disambiguation).

History

:Main article Lugdunum.

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Lyon was founded in 43 BC by the Roman Empire, who named it Lugdunum after the Celtic sun god Lugh ("shining one"). Agrippa recognized that Lugdunum's position on the natural highway from north to south-eastern France made it a natural communications hub, and he made Lyon the starting-point of the principal Roman roads throughout Gaul. The three parts of Gaul mentioned by Caesar met at Lyon. It became then the capital of the Gauls, partly thanks to its fortunate site at the convergence of navigable rivers.

Related Topics:
43 BC - Roman Empire - Lugdunum - Celtic - Lugh - Agrippa - Roman road - Gaul - Caesar

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Under Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, the Christians in Lyon were persecuted for their religious views. The great Christian bishop of Lyon in the 2nd century was the Easterner, Irenaeus.

Related Topics:
Roman Emperor - Septimius Severus - Christians - Irenaeus

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Burgundian refugees from the destruction of Worms by Huns in 437 were resettled by the military commander of the west, Aëtius, at Lugdunum, which was formally the capital of the new Burgundian kingdom by 461.

Related Topics:
Burgundian - Worms - Huns - 437 - Aëtius - 461

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In 843, by the Treaty of Verdun, Lyon, with the country beyond the Saône, went to Lothair I.

Related Topics:
843 - Treaty of Verdun - Saône - Lothair I

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Fernand Braudel remarked, "Historians of Lyon are not sufficiently alert to the bi-polarity between Paris and Lyon, which is a constant structure in French development" from the late Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution (Braudel 1984 p.327). The fairs at Lyon, the invention of Italian merchants, made it the economic countinghouse of France in the late 15th century. When international banking moved to Genoa, then Amsterdam, Lyon simply became the banking center of France; its new Bourse, built in 1749, still had the aspect of a public loggia, where accounts were settled in the open air. During the Renaissance the city developed due to the development of the silk trade, especially with Italy; the Italian influence on Lyon's architecture can still be seen. Thanks to the silk trade, Lyon became an important industrial town during the 19th century.

Related Topics:
Fernand Braudel - Renaissance - Silk - Italy - 19th century

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Lyon was a scene of mass violence against Huguenots in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacres in 1572.

Related Topics:
Huguenot - St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre - 1572

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The silk workers of Lyon, known as "canuts" staged two major uprisings: in 1831 and 1834. The 1831 uprising saw one of the first recorded uses of the black flag as an emblem of protest.

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Lyon was a centre for the occupying German forces, and also a stronghold of resistance during World War II, and the town is now home to a resistance museum. (See also Klaus Barbie.) The traboules through the houses enabled the locals to escape Gestapo raids.

Related Topics:
German - World War II - Klaus Barbie - Traboule - Gestapo

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