The Palais de la Bourse or Palais du Commerce is a building located in the quarter Les Cordeliers, in

2nd arrondissement of Lyon The 2nd arrondissement of Lyon is one of the nine arrondissements of the City of Lyon. History The first five arrondissements of Lyon were created by the Decree of March 24, 1852, which included the 2nd arrondissement. The current mayor is Denis ...

. It currently houses the headquarters of the

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to ...

and Industry of Lyon. It is served by the metro station ''Cordeliers'', and by bus lines C3,13, 18, 23, 25, 28, 58, 71, 91 and 99. It is bordered by the place des Cordeliers to the south, the place de la Bourse to the north, the

Rue de la République The Rue de la République is a street located in the 1st and 2nd arrondissements of Lyon, France. It links the Place de la Comédie in the north to Place Le Viste in the south, just next to Place Bellecour, via the Place de la République. It i ...

to the west and

Rue de la Bourse The Rue de la Bourse is a street located mainly in the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon, and also in the 1st arrondissement. It starts on the Place des Cordeliers, in the 2nd arrondissement, in front of the Église Saint-Bonaventure, and ends at right ...

to the east. In 1994, the building was classified as

monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a col ...

History

In 1853, the construction of the Palais du Commerce was decided, composing of a museum of art and industry, shops, the company of change agents and brokers in silk, the Chamber of Commerce and the Commercial Court. On 4 August 1854, René Dardel, architect of the Pont La Feuillée, the covered halls located Rue de la Martinière, and the creation of the Rue Victor Hugo, was chosen by prefect of the Rhône

Claude-Marius Vaïsse Claude-Marius Vaïsse (8 July 1799 – 8 August 1864) was a French lawyer who joined the administration of the July Monarchy. During the French Second Republic he was briefly Minister of the Interior. Under the Second French Empire he was appointed ...

for the construction of the building. The construction started in 1856 and the first stone was laid on 15 March. The building was inaugurated by

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...

and

Empress Eugenie An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...

on 25 August 1860. On 24 June 1894, president Sadi Carnot was assassinated leaving the building by the anarchist Caserio under the windows located on the rue de la République.

Architecture

The dimensions of the building are: 56.6 meters and 64.5 meters. It is composed of four corner pavilions and a central hall, called "Salle de la Corbeille". The decoration of the building, both in its facades that its interior, reflects the destination of the building : the statues of Justice, the Temperance, Agriculture, Trade and Industry. The group around the clock on the facade is the work of

Jean-Marie Bonnassieux Jean-Marie Bienaimé Bonnassieux (; 1810, Panissières, Loire – 1892) was a French sculptor. Biography The son of a cabinet maker from Lyon, Bonnassieux showed talent as a boy and was educated at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Ar ...

. The exterior white marble statue, near the stairs and the Place des Cordeliers, is an allegory that personified

Saône The Saône ( , ; frp, Sona; lat, Arar) is a river in eastern France. It is a right tributary of the Rhône, rising at Vioménil in the Vosges department and joining the Rhône in Lyon, at the southern end of the Presqu'île. The name d ...

and

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

joining their arms to point to the future. It was made in 1905 by sculptor Wermar. The two fronts at north and south are richly decorated with many entablatures, balconies and columns. Most paintings of interior ceilings are the work of artists from Lyon such as Antoine Claude Ponthus-Cinier or Jean-Baptiste Beuchot.

Uses

Initially devoted to host many institutions, the Palais de la Bourse, now Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Lyon hosted : * The Commercial Court * The Company of brokers in silk and goods, until 1867 * The

Employment Tribunal Employment tribunals are tribunal public bodies in England and Wales and Scotland which have statutory jurisdiction to hear many kinds of disputes between employers and employees. The most common disputes are concerned with unfair dismissal, ...

held its meetings until 1927 * The

Crédit Lyonnais The Crédit Lyonnais (, "Lyon Credit ompany) was a major French bank, created in 1863 and absorbed by former rival Crédit Agricole in 2003. Its head office was initially in Lyon but moved to Paris in 1882. In the early years of the 20th cent ...

, until 1934.

Photos

File:Palais de la Bourse en 2008.JPG, Palais de la Bourse, details of the south-east pavilion File:Horloge Bourse Lyon.jpg, The clock of the Palais de la Bourse File:Palais_de_la_Bourse_Lyon_northeastern_corner.jpg, Northeastern corner (seen from the rue de la Bourse)

References

* ''De la rue Impériale à la rue de la République'', Archives municipales de Lyon, 1991 {{coord, 45, 45, 50, N, 4, 50, 11, E, type:landmark_source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title Buildings and structures in Lyon Renaissance Revival architecture 2nd arrondissement of Lyon Palaces in France Monuments historiques of Lyon World Heritage Sites in France