Cathedrale Saint Jean

The primatial church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste-et-Saint-Étienne (also known more simply as the Cathédrale Saint-Jean) is the episcopal seat of the Archdiocese of Lyon. It holds the rank of both cathedral and primatial church: the Archbishop of Lyon holds the title of Primate of the Gauls.

It is located in the 5th arrondissement of Lyon, in the heart of the medieval and Renaissance quarter of Vieux Lyon, of which it is one of the landmark features. In the Middle Ages, it was part of a complex of churches and other ecclesiastical buildings, the cathedral group, which included, among others, the churches of Saint-Étienne and Sainte-Croix, destroyed during the Revolution, as well as the present-day manécanterie.

Originally, the church was dedicated under the patronage of Saint Stephen, while its baptistery was dedicated under that of Saint John the Baptist. However, as is often the case, the dedication of the baptistery was later applied in common usage. The first cathedral whose existence is attested, and which contemporary sources simply call maxima ecclesia, that is to say the "great church", was built by Patient. The second, larger and dating from the 9th century, is the work of Leidrade.

The present building is a long-term project, conceived by three successive archbishops at the moment when Western architecture was shifting from Romanesque to Gothic. Guichard de Pontigny envisaged and began the construction of a Romanesque church. Jean Belles-mains began transforming the building into a Gothic structure whose technical principles were not yet fully mastered. Finally, Renaud de Forez reshaped the project, thanks to advances in craftsmanship, to give the cathedral its present appearance. Construction spanned three centuries, from 1175 to 1480. The constrained site, between hill and river, together with the political struggles between the various powers governing Lyon in the central Middle Ages, prevented the cathedral from having as vast and as favourable a site as its designers would have wished. Furthermore, the absence of the particular expertise of the cathedral builders of the Paris Basin is one of the causes of the relative modesty of the dimensions and ornamentation of Saint-Jean.

Heavily damaged by the Wars of Religion in 1562, then by the French Revolution and the siege of Lyon in 1793, the primatial church was restored in the 19th century. The first works were fairly modest and strongly marked by classicism, but this approach changed vigorously with the arrival of a new architect, Tony Desjardins, who gave unprecedented momentum to the restoration. In his view, the works had to not only return the church to its medieval appearance, but this appearance was also to be sublimated in order to make Saint-Jean an "ideal cathedral" reflecting the Gothic spirit of the 13th century. These works altering the cathedral's appearance included raising the roof frame and adding spires. Faced with virulent criticism, not all of them were carried out. In the 20th century, embellishment and repair works continued, but war interrupted the work. In September 1944, the withdrawal of German troops was accompanied by acts of sabotage, which indirectly affected the building and shattered most of its stained-glass windows. The restoration of the stained-glass windows, then of the façades and interior fittings, constituted the bulk of the work carried out during the second half of the 20th century and the early 21st century.