Secret Passages. The Hidden City behind Anonymous Doors....

by Fripouille | February 28, 2009 at 09:32 am

1200 views | 36 Recommendations | 15 comments

People hide in them, escape into them, enter them to be alone, they make love in them, pee in them, read a book in them, and also, for some...live in them.

Houses? Nope. Old trains in a siding? Nah. Abandoned factories? Sorry, no. Again.

In fact, these pictures show just a few of the five hundred unique and more or less undetectable secret passages which lead from one street or building to another here in Lyon. It's worth coming to Lyon if only to discover them, and many people do just that.

You have to have a guide though, or someone who knows them well, because many are to be found behind anonymous doors, and nothing would indicate their existence....

Some of these passageways have existed since before the Renaissance period, and are an integral part of Lyon’s heritage. They are called ‘Traboules’, which is the noun version of an old local verb meaning ‘traverser’ in modern French, or ‘cross’, ‘go through’ etcetera.

Lyon is a dense and compact matrix of streets, and there are hills on two sides of it. The traboules were thus constructed in order that people could go up and down these hills in a straight line instead of zig-zagging their way up or down the streets. They are everywhere, but largely unseen.

They were extensively used by the local silk-weavers in the 17th and 18th centuries to transport raw materials and finished silk. These silk-weavers once staged a revolt against their working conditions and many hid in them from the vengeance of the police and other authorities, as some traboules were constructed without the knowledge of anyone but their users.

The same thing happened in WWII. Resistance fighters often planned attacks on German troops and patrols in a way that would ensure their escape from pursuing survivors by using traboules as an escape route. They carried out their attacks, ran round a corner, and, when the soldiers turned the corner to follow them, they would be disagreeably surprised to see that their attackers had quite simply disappeared as if by magic......

Only forty of these traboules are now designated as tourist attractions, and they have (small, of course) copper plaques indicating their existence. Others are inaccessible because those who live in the buidings around do not want tourists wandering around.

But if you know anyone who knows Lyon well, he’ll take you places you would never have dreamed existed.

And it is well-rumoured here that some traboules remain unknown to anyone, except those people of long-standing Lyon origins...who will never divulge their existence.........to anyone.

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jazzyzazzy

at 10:20 on February 28th, 2009

Very interesting

Fripouille

at 10:35 on February 28th, 2009

Thanks JZ. I was amazed to discover their existence. I now know many that a tourist would never see. Some people live in there....

Amy Judd

at 10:42 on February 28th, 2009

Fascinating to discover the history of places like this - well worth a visit I think!

Fripouille

at 10:51 on February 28th, 2009

Oh amyjudd, it really is worth the visit!

I know that this isn't the only city in which secret passages exist, but they are so beautiful here!! The architecture of some of them is amazing, and their history is sumptuous.

For example there are pedestals in some of them with no statues on them. Why? Because they had statues of the Virgin Mary on them, and various events, including the Revolution (as they like to call it here) led to them being taken away to be kept safely elsewhere, or broken by the revolutionaries.

These places are full of history and beauty......

Blue Crush

at 11:41 on February 28th, 2009

Fascinating! Toronto has an underground walkway, also, to save us from freezing during our wicked Canadian winters.

It runs for 27 km (16 miles), and according to Guiness World Records, PATH is the largest underground shopping complex. I'm sure it's not quite as pretty as the one in Lyon, though.

Fripouille

at 12:00 on February 28th, 2009

Unbelievable!!! Wahh! Blue Crush, I would recommend your link to anyone reading this post.

I would love to go there. I didn't have any idea of its existence.

Thank you very much for sharing this information......

kuuva

at 14:05 on February 28th, 2009

i will go someday!

Fripouille

at 14:32 on February 28th, 2009

Hi! Hope you're well Kuuva.

Well, if you're coming to see them, better do it before I take off for tax exile, because if not (unless you know someone here) you're gonna miss out on some great stuff, unknown to tourists!!

Thanks for your comment!

Barry Artiste

at 15:28 on February 28th, 2009

great story

Fripouille

at 15:44 on February 28th, 2009

...And an even better place to be BA, thanks.

(But no, tanks are not allowed).

Anything like that where you are?......

gerrypopplestone

at 20:42 on February 28th, 2009

Some say that, in London when the Victoria line was built, secret passages were conmstructed so that the wealthy could escape in the event of a catastrophe. Sadly, these did not extend to Camberwell.

Fripouille

at 02:47 on March 1st, 2009

I didn't know that!

One thing's for sure though, and that is that those Nazis who fled the bunker and tried to escape after Hitler's death would have found them very handy!!

But Berlin is not Lyon, so many of them didn't make it. Moral of the story - they should have installed the bunker in Lyon! :)

Monte (not verified)

at 10:19 on March 1st, 2009

Thank you. These are beautiful and we are lucky today to be able to see them. Sadly there were more than likely many more such hidden and underground transport ways. But after two major wars and reconstruction many have not survived or have become too unstable to allow them to be seen.

They say that life is stranger than fiction. The stories, if the walls could speak, would be interesting.

Fripouille

at 10:28 on March 1st, 2009

Hi Monte, and thanks for your comment. Oh yes, if those walls could speak.......

I get the idea you may be French. If you are, and you live in or know Lyon, have you heard the persistant rumours which talk about a tunnel somewhere near the Croix-Rousse in which tens of people are said to live, in a permanent manner, in some kind of autocracy?

Monte (not verified)

at 11:11 on March 1st, 2009

Thanks for the reply. VERY insightful, I happen to be half Alsacian (German side of the tracks, so to speak). No unfortunately have never been to France, was stationed for a short time in southern Germany (north of Munich).Never had the money to travel, even more so now. Know about Lyons in an odd sort of way, from research of 18th history. Things like that and catacombs and such have always had an interest for me.

I'm just strange I guess in that respect.