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All France Lyon Église du Bon-Pasteur

Église du Bon-Pasteur

This abandoned church in central Lyon is missing its front stairs.

Lyon, France

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leilabellot
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Église du Bon-Pasteur   FredD / CC BY-SA 3.0
Église du Bon-Pasteur   Andrzej Otrębski / CC BY-SA 4.0
Église du Bon-Pasteur.   leilabellot / Atlas Obscura User
Église du Bon-Pasteur.   leilabellot / Atlas Obscura User
  massimiliano20097 / Atlas Obscura User
  massimiliano20097 / Atlas Obscura User
  massimiliano20097 / Atlas Obscura User
  massimiliano20097 / Atlas Obscura User
Église du Bon-Pasteur.   leilabellot / Atlas Obscura User
Église du Bon-Pasteur   Xavixavir / Atlas Obscura User
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About

If you look at this church, you'll notice something odd. There's no way to actually enter the front door, as the entrance is about 13 feet (four meters) above the ground.

Originally, a staircase was meant to be built. But building this staircase would have required destroying a nearby building, so the plan was scrapped. Rather than walk through the front door, people had to slip in via a side entrance.

The church was built at the end of the 19th century. The French Emperor at the time, Napoleon III, even laid the first stone.

The structure stopped functioning as a Catholic church in 1984. It then become a showroom for students at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon, though the students left it in 2008. After that, the building became abandoned, though it did host squatters for a while.

Related Tags

Abandoned Churches Architectural Oddities Architecture Sacred Spaces

Know Before You Go

Entering the building is illegal. Stick to admiring it from the outside. 

Community Contributors

Added By

leilabellot

Edited By

Xavixavir, Michelle Cassidy, massimiliano20097, tikocha

  • Xavixavir
  • Michelle Cassidy
  • massimiliano20097
  • tikocha

Published

October 22, 2019

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Sources
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89glise_du_Bon-Pasteur
Église du Bon-Pasteur
21 Rue Neyret
Lyon, 69001
France
45.771463, 4.829828
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