5/11.- Place Saint-Jean Walking along the streets of 'Vieux Lyon' you get to the 'Place Saint Jean', where the beautiful Saint Jean Church sits. This church was built between 1180 and 1480, and reflects the transition from Romanesque to Gothic in Old Europe. This church sits in the Saint Jean quarter, where a church dedicated to this Saint was built in the 4th century. Saint Jean district with Saint Georges' and Saint Paul's districts form the quarter known as 'Vieux Lyon', one of the jewels of Lyon. In 1420, after the seizure of Lyon by the French monarchy, Lyon became a trading center thanks to the set up of free tax markets. For more than a century foreign bankers settled in the city, among them many Tuscan and Genoese. One of the offsprings of the most famous Florence dynasty, Marie de Medici, would meet here her future husband, Henri IV. They married in Saint-Jean Cathedral in 1600. You should not miss the opportunity to book one of the "Traboules Tours". The Traboules used to be passages that allowed the transportation of the precious silk through the district's houses. => next