Musée des Beaux-Arts
Musée des Beaux-Arts is one of the narrated stops on the self-guided Lyon audio walking tour in Gingerguide. Plan about ~180 min here. Press play at the spot for its two to three minute story, or ask the AI guide anything about it.
- Type museum
- Suggested visit ~180 min
- Lyon Lyon guide
About Musée des Beaux-Arts
Housed in a grand former Benedictine convent, Lyon's Fine Arts Museum holds the finest collection outside Paris, Rubens, Rembrandt, Rodin, and exceptional Egyptian antiquities.
The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, housed in the former Benedictine convent of Saint-Pierre on the Place des Terreaux, is considered the finest fine arts museum in France outside the Louvre. The convent building itself is a masterpiece of 17th-century architecture, its two-storey arcaded cloisters providing one of the most beautiful settings for any museum in Europe. The collection is encyclopaedic in its range: antiquities from Egypt, Greece, and Rome; a superb medieval and Renaissance section; old masters including Rubens, Rembrandt, Poussin, El Greco, Veronese, and Tintoretto; an Impressionist and Post-Impressionist gallery with works by Monet, Pissarro, Gauguin, and Cézanne; and sculpture gardens featuring works by Rodin, Maillol, and Bourdelle. The Egyptian collection is one of the most important in France. The museum also holds a remarkable collection of coins and medals. The cloister garden, planted with remarkable trees and containing Rodin bronzes among the beds, is one of the most peaceful spaces in Lyon.
Did you know? The Bartholdi fountain in front of the museum was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the same sculptor who created the Statue of Liberty, the fountain originally represented France riding the waters of the world's great rivers.
How long should you spend at Musée des Beaux-Arts?
Plan about ~180 min at Musée des Beaux-Arts. That is enough to take it in and hear its narrated story; stay longer if it grabs you. The tour is self-guided, so there is no rush.
Is Musée des Beaux-Arts worth visiting?
Musée des Beaux-Arts is one of the 25 sights the Gingerguide team researched and narrated in Lyon, so it earns a place on a self-guided walk. Its story explains why it matters, and you can ask the AI guide anything the story leaves open.
Nearby stops in Lyon
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