Place des Terreaux Traboule (Terreaux Square Passageway), Lyon

The Terreaux Square Passageway (Place des Terreaux Traboule) begins at one of Lyon’s most historic and lively squares. The Terreaux Square, set at the foot of the Red Cross district, is home to the grand City Hall, the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, and the celebrated Bartholdi Fountain. While the square dazzles with monumental architecture and public life, it also marks the starting point of a network of traboules that wind toward the famous Court of the Voracious. This makes it an ideal place to combine sightseeing with exploration, moving from the open grandeur of the square into Lyon’s hidden passageways.

Though there is a traboule entrance at 6 Terreaux Square, it is currently closed. Instead, visitors can begin at the corner of Terreaux Square and Sainte-Marie-des-Terreaux, where signs on nearby buildings help guide the way. The passageway here may not be as polished as others in Lyon-its upkeep is modest, and some of its charm has faded-but it remains accessible. This traboule once sheltered silk workers carrying delicate goods from the Red Cross workshops to merchants.

The Terreaux Passageway also carries memories from a darker chapter of history. In 1944, 80 Jews were arrested in its courtyard during the German occupation, a reminder of how these passageways, once practical arteries of trade, became charged with the weight of wartime events. Like many traboules across Lyon, it also offered discreet routes to members of the French Resistance.

For today’s visitor, the Terreaux Square Passageway may seem modest compared to the bustling square outside, yet it offers a powerful sense of continuity with the city’s past. Walking through its narrow corridors and courtyards connects you to centuries of local life-commerce, community, resilience, and memory-woven into Lyon’s urban fabric.