The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Lyon isn’t France’s oldest cathedral—it’s among the youngest of the dozen or so built in the 12th century. It might stake a claim, though, based on sitting on a site that’s held a cathedral since the 2nd century. It’s actually the third on the site.
The first was founded by the first two bishops of Lyon, when the city was still a Roman outpost. A new cathedral was built in the 5th century, dedicated to St Stephen. And then, in 1180, it gave way to construction of this building, which took almost 300 years to finish.
Being unfinished, though, wasn’t a bar to serving as venue for two Ecumenical Councils, in 1245 and 1274. At the first of these, the then Pope announced that he was deposing the Holy Roman Emperor, a sanction the emperor brushed off; at the second, a later Pope called for a new Crusade and unity between Eastern and Western churches, neither of which happened. The two meetings were the first two church councils to take place outside Rome.
Lyon was a logical choice for a venue: the Councils came at a time of turmoil in the church, and moving the meeting away from Rome helped the Pope build alliances outside Italy. In the previous century, Lyon had been given special status: the Archbishop of Lyon was, and is, ‘Primate of all the Gauls,’ the highest in France.
Today, the cathedral’s furnishings and decor are a blend of ancient and modern, including the cases of its two organs. The blend is also true of the stained glass.
 
 
One of the cathedral’s glories isn’t religious at all; it’s a marvelous 14th century astronomical clock with coordinated movements that display time and the movement of planets, as well as playing musical accompaniments.
  
A plaque marks the site where, in 1600, Henri IV of France married the Florentine heiress Marie de Medici, connecting two powerful families and fortunes.
In afternoon light, as I was leaving, the windows began to paint the austere columns and walls in rich color…
Through the open doors, a view of the Basilica of Notre Dame of Fourvière, on the hilltop above.
The cathedral has a bit of art history as well: a sketch made by J.W.M. Turner in 1819 from the Fourvière hill above, and an 1855 Degas painting of an ordination ceremony in the cathedral.
