Imagining an Old City in Nineteenth-Century France: Urban Renovation,Civil Society,and the Making of Vieux Lyon

Abstract

Urban histories of nineteenth-century France have tended to focus on Paris and emphasize state actions. This has obscured movements that were crucial in shaping modern cities, particularly segments of civil society that worked on preserving old neighborhoods. This article focuses on Lyon—a “second city”—and analyzes how state-driven urban renovations under the Second Empire fostered a fin-de-siècle localist reaction that sought to preserve what was seen as Lyonnais urban forms (in particular neighborhoods defined by their narrow and crooked streets). Through an antiquarian discourse, cultural elites argued that these urban forms were an essential part of Lyonnais identity—which they feared was being infringed upon by Paris. The actions of these prideful and anxious Lyonnais show that antiquarian history was, in fact, a modern phenomenon that played a key role in shaping the modern city.