Murals of Lyon, France

Together they form one giant open-air gallery that is a defining feature of Lyon’s urban landscape, admired by both tourists and residents alike.

Laurent Mourguet was an 18th century tooth puller who created a puppet show to distract his patients. The puppet named Guignol was a hero of the local silk workers and has since become an iconic figures of Lyonnais folklore. 

The brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière were great 19th century inventors that developed the cinematograph in Lyon in 1895. Here they are projecting one of their films, showing a practical joke being played on a gardener.

Paul Bocuse is renowned French chef, and a worldwide ambassador of the art of French cuisine. His major restaurant, located a few kilometers north of Lyon, has had three Michelin stars for over 50 years. 

A row of city signs, shops, boutiques and restaurants are painted on the ground floor of the mural. This adds to the realism of the painting, the trompe-l’oeil effect. The artists also painted adverts for real businesses in Lyon who helped to fund the painting of the fresco.

Together they form one giant open-air gallery that is a clever marketing strategy!

Joseph-Marie Jacquard helped to modernize the local silk industry with his invention that took his name, the Jacquard loom. Its particularity is its use of punched cards, and it is still used by a number of local silk weavers today.

Here is another mural, depicting an artist workshop on the ground floor. Look at the windows above – what do you see? They’re the paintings of the artist on the ground floor, a playful mix of the real and the unreal.

At 1,200 square metres, the Wall of the Canuts is the largest fresco in Europe. It depicts daily life in the Croix-Rousse neighborhood of Lyon, historically known for housing the local industry of silk workers, or “canuts.” 

As you get closer to the wall you can see the high windows that are typical of canut homes.

This giant and lifelike representation of the neighborhood is a harmonious echo of its real-life counterpart. We can see some of the neighborhood’s inhabitants in action as well as their emblems.

This red bicycle represents Vélo’v, Lyon’s bike sharing system. Indeed, Lyon was a pioneer in France when the system was created in 2005, and since then other cities in Europe have adopted their own system based on the same model.

Tucked into a small passageway on the lower right-hand corner of the Wall are boards that describe the history of the fresco. What’s special about the wall is that it receives a “facelift” every ten to fifteen to mirror the evolution of the neighborhood in real life and thus maintain the illusion of the trompe-l’oeil or “trick of the eye” effect.

To perform the task of covering the entire wall, the mural painters at CitéCreation decided to feature typical architectural elements of the neighborhood – buildings, courtyards, and tall flights of stairs. 

In 1997, the mural painter updated the fresco to reflect changes in the neighborhood in the previous ten years. Businesses sprung up on the ground floor, façade colors were made more vibrant and the neighborhood residents were aged.