Built into the Fourvière hillside in the 1970s by the architect Bernard Zehrfuss, the Gallo-Roman Museum is an architectural feat as well as a cultural one — five concrete levels spiral down through the hill, lit from above, with the Roman theatre visible through windows at the lower levels. The collection is one of the finest provincial Roman museums in France.
The highlight is the Claudian Tables, two bronze plaques bearing a speech by Emperor Claudius to the Roman Senate in 48 CE. Other standouts include exceptional floor mosaics (particularly the chariot-racing Circus mosaic and the Bacchus mosaic), bronze inscriptions, and everyday objects from the Roman city. The museum gives a genuine sense of what Lugdunum looked like in its imperial heyday.