Overview
The square was laid out in the seventeenth century on former vineyards and has been rebuilt repeatedly, most drastically during the Revolution when the buildings on the west side were demolished as a punishment for the city’s revolt. Its emptiness is the point: no trees in the middle, nothing to break the sightline from Fourvière to the Rhône. A small statue of the Little Prince and Saint-Exupéry, who was born in Lyon, stands at the south-east corner.
Highlights
It is the city’s zero point, and every distance in Lyon is measured from here. The Ferris wheel runs in winter, and the square holds the Fête des Lumières installations in December. Rue Victor Hugo south and rue de la République north are the two shopping streets that run off it.