Place Sathonay
Encyclopedia
The Place Sathonay is a square located in the 1st arrondissement of Lyon
1st arrondissement of Lyon
The 1st arrondissement of Lyon, France is one of the nine arrondissements of the City of Lyon. It is located below the hill of Croix-Rousse and on the north part of the Presqu'île formed by the Saône and the Rhône, the two rivers in Lyon...

, France, at the bottom of hill of La Croix-Rousse
La Croix-Rousse
This zone is served by the metro line La Croix-Rousse is a hill in the town of Lyon, France, as well as the name of a quarter located on this hill . It is 254m at its peak...

, in La Martinière quarter. It was named after Nicolas-Marie-Jean-Claude Fay de Sathonay, mayor of Lyon from 1805 to 1812, as a tribute for all the importants works undertaken under his presidency. The square is currently the third largest square in Lyon and belongs to the zone classified as World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...

 by UNESCO. According to Lyon geography agrégé
Agrégation
In France, the agrégation is a civil service competitive examination for some positions in the public education system. The laureates are known as agrégés...

Jean Pelletier, it is "one of the most interesting squares of Lyon", because of its harmonious proportions, its boundaries composed of buildings with beautiful 1920s facades, and its plantations, which brings "a charm tinged of poetry" and give it the appearance of a village square.

The former square

Before the deliberation of the municipal council on 22 August 1817, the square was called Place de la Déserte. According to the 1268 Tractatus de bellis, inhabitants of Lyon built fortifications in the Déserte to defend themselves from the ecclesiastical authority. In 1296, Blanche de Châlons, widow of the lord of Beaujeu, Rhone
Beaujeu, Rhône
Beaujeu is a commune of the Rhône department in eastern France.It lies between Mâcon and Lyon.Beaujeu gives its name to the famous wine region of Beaujolais , a former province of France of which it is the historical capital...

 acquired from Jean Mallerie the parcel "close the new door" and founded in 1304 the monastery or abbey of the same name, which they gave to the Ladies of Saint Clair or Clarisses or which came under the rule of Saint Benoit
Order of Saint Benedict
The Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...

. In 1318, Blanche de Châlons' son left the vine of the Varissonnière to the religious order, and in 1439, the businessman Pierre du Nyèvre transferred the Clos of the vine, which enlarged the field of Order of Poor Ladies
Order of Poor Ladies
The Poor Clares also known as the Order of Saint Clare, the Order of Poor Ladies, the Poor Clare Sisters, the Clarisse, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Congregation, and the Second Order of St. Francis, , comprise several orders of nuns in the Catholic Church...

. In 1745, their possessions were composed of a quadrilateral aera bounded by the Rue du Sergent Blandan
Rue du Sergent Blandan
The Rue du Sergent Blandan is one of the oldest streets of Lyon. It connects Saint Vincent and the slopes of the Croix-Rousse quarters, in the 1st arrondissement of Lyon. The street starts rue Pareille, runs along the Place Sathonay, crosses the rue Hippolyte Flandrin, the rue Louis Vitet and the...

 (south), the Montée des Carmélites
Montée des Carmélites
The Montée des Carmélites is one of the oldest streets of Lyon, dating from Roman times, located in the 1st arrondissement of Lyon. It connects the Saint-Vincent quarter to the Plateau de la Croix-Rousse...

 (west), the Rue du Bon Pasteur (north) and the Montée de la Grande Côte
Montée de la Grande Côte
The Montée de la Grande Côte, or the Montée de la Grande-Côte, is a street of La Croix-Rousse quarter, located in the 1st arrondissement of Lyon, connecting the Terreaux quarter and the Plateau de la Croix Rousse. It is characterized by a high elevation and is more narrow at the bottom...

 (east).

From 1791, the property of religious congregations of the hill of La Croix-Rousse were sold and became a national property. The first property auction was that of the Carthusians in September 1791. The gardens of the lower part were given free to the city by decrees of the representative of the people Poulin-Grandpré, on 14 November 1795. In 1802, this steepest part of the land to the north, was turned into a garden of plants, still visible today. The southern part of the place was given to the city on 19 January 1818. The rest of the buildings belongs now to the Department as a national property and was ceded to the Lyon city. Finally, the buildings were destroyed in 1813, excepted the building that currently houses the City Hall of the arrondissement, and replaced by a square paved with pebbles and flat stones.

The contemporary square

In 1817, the municipal architect Louis Flachéron proposed to enlarge the square and to create an entry to the garden of plants. The square, almost immediately named Place Sathonay, was created under the Mayor of Fargues and was studied in detail by a committee chaired by Paulet which drew up the plan which was approved on 10 December 1817. Providing a good view on the steps at the north appeared to be a major concern then: indeed, the idea of erecting a central fountain was eventually withdrawn for this reason, and the whole composition was based on a north-south axis, as shown by the original plan. It had an area of 4,000 m², and the stairs at the north of the square next to the city hall provided an access to the former garden of plants.

Knight and Baron Antoine Fay (18th century), architect Louis Flacheron and lawyer Jean Pine des Granges (19th century) lived on this square. Circa 1830, an ancient Roman house with a bathroom and three mosaics was discovered at the corner of the rue Poivre.
In 1830, houses with commercial or mixed use (i.e. for both housing and work) in 1820s-1830s buildings are mainly composed of one or two rooms (52%), but there were also some commercial premises with seven-eight rooms. The square was mainly inhabited by small traders (60%) and silk agents (26%). Family and professional life was often merged as 69.2% of homes had both uses. Those who had a flat exclusively for housing on the place were mainly rentier
Rentier
A rentier is an entity that receives income derived from economic rents, which can include anything from the income derived from intellectual property to real estate. Associated terms include* Rentier capitalism* Rentier state...

s (40%) who generally lived at second and third floors with about 3.7 rooms. There was, at that time, none loom on the square. In 1831, the buildings at Nos. 5 and 6 of the square were respectively the second and the fifth new buildings of the eastern part of the hill which had the highest rental value
Rental value
Rental value is the fair market value of property while rented out in a lease. More generally, it may be the consideration paid under the lease for the right to occupy, or the royalties or return received by a lessor under a license to real property...

 (11,045 and 9,200 FF). They were composed of 46 and 31 apartments with a total of 105 and 86 rooms.

Buildings

To the north, the square is opened by a staircase called the montée de l'Amphithéâtre and surrounded by two identical buildings, the one on the left was built between 1819 and 1823. On both sides of the staircase, there are two fountains adorned with bronze lions made by the Fonderie nationale du Creusot and erected in 1823, which are replicas of the lions adorning the Acqua Felice Fountain in Rome. The side streets were built around 1820-1821. At the east and west, there are four buildings of four floors.

The architecture of the facades is usually very rich. Indeed, according to writer Josette Barre, "the facades are opulent, decorated with wrought iron railings, large doorways in wood, stone, pilasters and pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...

s for most openings of the first floors. The windows are high up to the third floor, then smaller with openings sometimes replaced by a mansard at the last floor".

The corner traboule of the Place Sathonay, which crosses a building built in 1822, is closed. There is currently the Police station
Police station
A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.- Facilities...

 of the 1st arrondissement, at No. 5 (the building immediately at left of the staircase).

Statue and fountain

In the nineteenth century, the square was decorated with a fountain topped by a bronze statue portraying French inventor Joseph Marie Jacquard
Joseph Marie Jacquard
Joseph Marie Charles dit Jacquard played an important role in the development of the earliest programmable loom , which in turn played an important role in the development of other programmable machines, such as computers.- Early life :Jean Jacquard’s name was not really...

, made by Foyatier and inaugurated on Sunday 16 August 1840; however, the statue was later removed. The site was successfully planted with chestnut trees at the same time. There are some benches and, near the city hall, a impatiens
Impatiens
Impatiens is a genus of about 850–1,000 species of flowering plants, widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere and tropics. Together with the puzzling Hydrocera triflora, this genus makes up the family Balsaminaceae...

 clump and buxus
Buxus
Buxus is a genus of about 70 species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood ....

.

At the center of the square, there is currently a statue of Jean Pierre Hippolyte Blandan (also named Sergeant Blandan), born in the neighborhood and killed during the conquest of Algeria in 1842. The 2.8-metre statue in bronze was made by Thomas Lamotte and was raised on a stone plinth by architect Joseph Dubuisson and the whole cost 19,420 francs. It was inaugurated on 22 April 1900 at an expensive ceremony reported in Le Progrès
Le Progrès
Le Progrès is a regional daily newspaper which is based in Lyon, Rhône. It reports primarily on local news in the Rhône-Alpes region.The printing factory is in Chassieu, in the agglomeration of Lyon....

. But it disappeared during the Second World War and was replaced by a new statue in stone after the war.
There is a statue of Virgin Mary at No. 4, rue des Farges.
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