LYONS, Worm, or LYON, France, the former capital of Lyonnais and now of the department of the Rhone, 320 miles by rail southeast of Paris, and 170 miles north of Mar seilles, is the second city of industrial and mili tary importance and the third in point of popu lation in the country. It is strikingly situated at the confluence of the Same and Rhone, the cen tral business section being on the tongue of land that projects between the rivers to their junction, and extends northward to the hill of La Croix Rousse ; while the ancient mediaeval town is on the steep slopes of the Fourvieres hill, rising from the west bank of the Saone, and the modern industrial suburb of La Guil lotiere, with its numerous factories, is on the east bank of the Rhone. Thirteen bridges span the SaOne at this point, varying from 250 to 450 feet wide, and 11 bridges the RhOne, over 600 feet wide. A series of detached forts crown different heights within a circuit of 43 miles, making Lyons, with its extensive bar racks and considerable garrison, a defensive position of great strategic importance. It is the centre for the 14th Army Corps. The older quarters of the town are crowded, dirty and un healthful, with narrow, irregular streets, lined by tall, ungainly buildings. The best parts are the 13 miles of magnificent quays, built since the 18th century as a protection against the pe riodical river floods, and now laid out with finely planted walks, stately mansions, munici pal buildings, railroad depots, capacious ware houses, etc.
Among the notable squares and open places are the Place des Terreaux, facing which stands the Hotel de Ville and the large and handsome Place Bellecour, the fashionable promenade. The chief public edifices are more remarkable for their antiquity than for the beauty of their architecture. The cathedral of Saint John on the slope of the Fourvieres, on the right bank of the Same, is in the Gothic style of the 12th century, and has four towers, two of which flank the west front, while the other two, shorter but more massive, form the transepts. Higher up the slope is the modern church of Notre Dame, an imposing composite edifice occupy ing the site of the Forum V etus built by Trajan.
Beside it is a tower or Belvedere 680 feet above the Saone from which on a clear day Mont Blanc, 100 miles off, may be seen. On the other side of the Fourvieres is the church of Saint Irenaus, the second bishop of Lyons. The church itself is an uninteresting modern struc ture, but it stands on the grave of the martyred bishop, and has beneath it the reputed crypt in which Polycarp preached, and 19,000 Christians at a later period were massacred by orders of Septimius Severus, 202 A.D. A little above the cathedral is the Palais de Justice, and lower down on the opposite bank of the Swine is the church of the Abbey of Ainay, dating from the 6th century, beneath whose sacristy, and pene trating below the bed of the river, are dungeons without light or air, in which many of the early Christians were immured previous to martyr dom. Other noteworthy churches are the church of Saint Nizier, of the 14th century, one of the largest in the town; that of Saint Bona venture, the patron saint of Lyons; and the church of the Chartreux, surmounted by a superb dome seen from all quarters of the city. The archepiscopal palace (15th century), situated near the cathedral, is a large edifice of no architectural merit. The Hotel de Ville is considered one of the finest edifices of the kind in France. It is an isolated square, and is sur mounted by a dome 164 feet high. The public library, occupying part of the buildings of the college on the Quai de Retz, is the best provin cial collection in France, containing 450,000 volumes and over 1,000 incunabula. The Palais des Arts, facing the Place des Terreaux, is a fine majestic edifice. It contains a picture-gal lery (with works by Pugin, Rubens, Paul Veronese and Teniers), a museum of natural history, a cabinet of medals, a gallery for statutes, and another for ancient stuccoes, a depot of mechanical inventions for the fabrica tion of silks, with a library attached, a free school of design and a large hall used as the exchange. Among the city's monuments are those to President Carnot, a memorial of the Franco-German War and a fountain by Bartholdi.