Lyon-Quais

Fourvière is a district of Lyon, France located on a hill immediately west of the old part of the town, rising abruptly from the river Saône and then gently sloping down to the north-west. It is the site of the original Roman settlement of Lugdunum (43 BC). While it supports two funicular lines, the oldest in the world still active, it is known primarily for the Catholic Basilica of Fourvière. The inauguration of the golden statue of Mary on the north-west tower is the origin of the famous 8 December Festival of Lights, when the citizens of Lyon display candles (lumignons) at their windows. This festival now attracts hundreds of thousands of people into the streets of Lyon every year. Fourvière contains many other religious buildings including convents, monasteries and chapels. It is known in Lyon as "the hill that prays". It is now part of a UNESCO World Heritage site designated for the city of Lyon in 1998.

Also on the Fourvière hill is La Tour Métallique which was privately built by the owners of the land to rival the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It forms the highest point in Lyon and is in fact higher than the Eiffel Tower at its summit, due to it being on a hill. It is now a television relay tower.

On the south side of Fourvière are the (partially intact) ruins of a Roman Theatre (15 BC) and an odéon (2nd century), only rediscovered in the 20th century, and now home to a museum and a series of concerts and operas throughout the summer, and the ruins of vast Roman Baths.

Lyon (French pronunciation: [ljɔ̃] ( listen), locally: [lijɔ̃]; Occitan: Lion [liˈu]; Arpitan: Liyon [ʎjɔ̃]; English: /liːˈɒn/), traditionally spelt Lyons in English, is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at 470 km (292 mi) from Paris, 320 km (199 mi) from Marseille, 160 km (99 mi) from Geneva, 280 km (174 mi) from Turin, and 600 km (373 mi) from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais.

The city of Lyon has 480,660 inhabitants. Together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Lyon forms the largest agglomeration (urban area) in France outside Paris with a population estimated to be 1,422,331; its overall metropolitan area was estimated to have a population of 2,118,132. Its urban region represents half of the Rhône-Alpes region population with 2.9 million inhabitants. Lyon is the capital of this region, as well as the capital of the smaller Rhône département.

France (English ⁱ/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km² (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km² / 4,383,000 sq mi).

Lyon Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Lyon) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Lyon, France, the seat of the Archbishop of Lyon.

The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière is a minor basilica in Lyon. It was built with private funds between 1872 and 1884 in a dominating position in the city.

The site it occupies was once the Roman forum of Trajan, the forum vetus (old forum), thus its name (as an inverted corruption of the French Vieux-Forum).

Speculating on the reasons for the construction of such an elaborate and expensive building, one author makes the possibly questionable statement that: "The reaction to the communes of Paris and Lyon were triumphalist monuments, the Sacré-Coeur of Montmartre and the basilica of Fourvière, dominating both cities. These buildings were erected using private funds, as gigantic ex-votos, thanking God for the victory over the socialists and in expiation of the sins of modern France."

Notre-Dame de Fourvière was included when the whole historic center of Lyon was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.