Lyon Cathedral (Saint-Jean)
Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste45°46′ N 4°50′ E
Lyon's Saint-Jean cathedral suits a visitor who wants the old town's Gothic primatial church, where the diocese's 8 December procession to Fourvière begins, and its trade-off is that the 2026 Christmas service times are not yet out. Mass is held at 09:00 Tuesday to Friday and at 08:30 and 10:00 on Sunday.
Photo Herbert Frank from Wien (Vienna), AT · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0 and others, credited in the gallery
Saint-Jean stands on its own square at the foot of Fourvière hill in Vieux Lyon. On the evening of 8 December the diocese's procession sets off from here and climbs to the basilica, leaving at 18:30 in both 2024 and 2025. During the Fête des Lumières the west front carries a projection: in 2025 it was Lumina by the Hungarian artist László Zsolt Bordos, with the great rose window at its centre.
Inside, the cathedral keeps an astronomical clock that has its own ticketed visit. On festival nights in 2025 the organizer sent people leaving the cathedral square towards Bellecour for metro lines A and D.
Worth knowing
- Check cathedrale-lyon.fr in December for the Christmas Mass times.
- On festival nights, head to Bellecour for metro lines A and D when you leave the cathedral square, as the organizer advised in 2025.
Quick answers about Lyon Cathedral (Saint-Jean)
What are the opening hours of Lyon's Saint-Jean cathedral?
Saint-Jean cathedral opens 14:00 to 19:00 on Monday, 08:30 to 19:00 Tuesday to Friday (19:30 on Wednesday), 08:30 to 19:30 on Saturday and 08:00 to 19:30 on Sunday, per the cathedral's own site.
Where does the 8 December procession in Lyon start?
The 8 December procession starts at Saint-Jean cathedral in Vieux Lyon and climbs to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière. It left at 18:30 in 2024 and 2025.
In the journal and guides
