Vieux Lyon & Roman Fourvière

Founded in 43 BC as Lugdunum, Lyon became the capital of Roman Gaul and the birthplace of the emperors Claudius and Caracalla; its hillside theatres on Fourvière still stage performances two thousand years on. In the Renaissance Lyon grew rich on silk and printing, its Vieux Lyon quarter a warren of covered passageways called traboules that Resistance fighters later used to evade the Gestapo—Klaus Barbie, the 'Butcher of Lyon', tortured prisoners here. In 1895 the Lumière brothers shot the first films in the world in Lyon, screening workers leaving their factory. The city's layered history is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.