Montée du Gourguillon

In front of you runs the Montée du Gourguillon, one of the oldest streets in Lyon. For centuries it was the only way in from the west: the Romans already used it to come down from the upper town on Fourvière to the Saône. It is about 400 metres long, with an average gradient of more than 13%.

1A river of blood

In the early 16th century, the physician and humanist Symphorien Champier spread a spectacular explanation of its name: during the persecution under the emperor Septimius Severus, around AD 202, nineteen thousand Christians were supposedly martyred, and their blood ran down this slope, turning the Saône red all the way to Mâcon.

Lyon's scholars regard this story as fantasy: 'Gourguillon' seems to come from a word for rainwater rushing downhill.

2The pope's jewel

What is documented is even more surprising. On 14 November 1305, Clement V had just been crowned pope at Saint-Just, at the top of the hill, and was coming down this way in procession with King Philip the Fair. A wall crowded with onlookers collapsed onto the procession: twelve people died, among them a brother of the pope and Duke John II of Brittany. The pope fell, lost his tiara and, according to accounts of the time, one of its precious stones vanished into the rubble. It was never found.

3What to look for

• The small steps in the paving, which ease the slope.
• The view: 'Beauregard', fine view, was the medieval name of the upper part.
• Impasse Turquet, an alley with rare half-timbered houses.