The Rhône is the department in which Lyon is located; Lyon is France’s third-largest city and one of the richest in terms of historical and gastronomic heritage. Lyon, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its historic centre covering over five hundred hectares, is the capital of French gastronomy, the cradle of the silk industry and a city that has been a major European crossroads for two thousand years.
The Rhône’s fortified heritage is mainly urban and suburban: the 19th-century forts encircling Lyon from the heights of the Croix-Rousse to the hills of the left bank, the pink tower of Pierre Scize, whose ruins overlook the Saône, the Château de La Rochette in Ternand, one of the best-preserved in the department… The Beaujolais vineyards, in the north of the department, boast numerous wine châteaux and manor houses, of which Corcelles, Montmelas and Bagnols are the most remarkable.
Lyon also shines with its many Renaissance mansions in Vieux-Lyon — the Saint-Jean district, Saint-Paul and Saint-Georges —, bearing witness to the prosperity of the Florentine, German and Lyonnais merchants who made the city the financial capital of Europe in the 16th century, before François I chose Paris instead.