---
node: spot_lyon_place_bellecour
type: spot
slug: place_bellecour
destination: dest_lyon
title: "Place Bellecour"
lead: "Place Bellecour is the great red-gravel square between Lyon's two rivers, one of the largest pedestrian squares in Europe at 62,000 square metres. The equestrian Louis XIV at its centre is a replacement — the original was melted for cannon in 1793."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_lyon_place_bellecour.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Place_Bellecour_1.jpg"
image_author: "Zakarie Faibis"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

The square was laid out in the seventeenth century on former vineyards and has been rebuilt repeatedly, most drastically during the Revolution when the buildings on the west side were demolished as a punishment for the city's revolt. Its emptiness is the point: no trees in the middle, nothing to break the sightline from Fourvière to the Rhône. A small statue of the Little Prince and Saint-Exupéry, who was born in Lyon, stands at the south-east corner.

## Highlights

It is the city's zero point, and every distance in Lyon is measured from here. The Ferris wheel runs in winter, and the square holds the Fête des Lumières installations in December. Rue Victor Hugo south and rue de la République north are the two shopping streets that run off it.