Vieux-Lyon, Maison Thomassin

Some elements of this house date from 1298; it is one of the oldest residential houses of Lyon. Its facade was rebuilt in 1493 in Gothic style at the initiative of Claude Thomassin, notable and rich merchant of Lyon. Of this late thirteenth century house, there remains a room with its ceiling painted with the arms of St. Louis, his mother and the Fuers, the former owners. Note the mullioned windows under a frieze decorated with zodiac signs on the first floor. On the second floor, in the centre of each pointed arch, there carved coats of arms: those of the Dauphin (fish), of King Charles VIII of France (fleurs de lys) and of Anne of Brittany (ermine). The last, on the right, was added in the nineteenth century.