Fresque des Lyonnais, Lyon — Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

Imagine 2,000 years of a city's greatest minds gathered together on a single wall, and you'll begin to understand the ambition behind the Fresque des Lyonnais. Painted between 1994 and 1995 by the renowned mural collective CiteCreation, this enormous work covers between 800 and 1,200 square metres and depicts 30 of Lyon's most influential figures selected from an initial pool of 250 candidates. The selection process alone tells a story: choosing just 30 from 2,000 years of remarkable Lyonnais required passionate debate about who truly deserved a place on the wall. The finished mural is a masterpiece of trompe l'oeil art. Famous Lyonnais appear to lean from balconies, stand in doorways, and chat on staircases above a row of bouchons (traditional Lyon restaurants) at street level. Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of The Little Prince, gazes out dreamily. The Lumiere brothers, who invented cinema right here in Lyon, seem to be setting up one of their early cameras. Scientists, chefs, artists, and religious figures mingle across centuries in a visual celebration of Lyon's extraordinary contribution to French and world culture. Located in the 1st arrondissement and completely free to view from the street, the Fresque des Lyonnais is one of the largest and most impressive painted walls in all of Europe. Questo's Lyon art trail always includes this spectacular mural where a city's greatest stories are told in paint, one remarkable face at a time.