Place des Terreaux
The Place des Terreaux is a square located in the centre of Lyon, France, on the Presqu'île between the Rhône and the Saône rivers, at the foot of the hill of La Croix-Rousse in the 1st arrondissement. It borders both the Hôtel de Ville and Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. The square belongs to the zone classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Location The square has these borders: On the east by the Lyon City Hall On the south by the Palais Saint-Pierre and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon On the west by a building through a gallery On the north by civilian buildings marking the beginning of the slopes of the La Croix-Rousse History The front wall of the square In 1206, associations of merchants of Lyon ran to Archbishop Renaud II de Forez, who failed to comply with the charter signed in 1195 by violating the agreements made in respect of taxes on goods. To protect the village of Saint-Nizier from ecclesiastical power, the bourgeois of Lyon then decided to raise a wall at the foot of the hill of Saint-Sébastien (slope of the Croix-Rousse) and a tower on the Saône to control the bridge