France · Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes · Lyon
La Guillotière, Lyon — Area Guide & Where to Stay
La Guillotière is a quarter of Lyon on the left bank of the Rhône, mostly in the 7th arrondissement, and it was a commune of its own until 24 March 1852.
Hotel links are affiliate links: booking through them may earn us a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never affects how places are ranked. How this works
Where to stay in La Guillotière
Where the beds are, and what that means for the visit.
The place du Pont is the middle of it. That square, now called place Gabriel-Péri, carried the old town hall and still carries the Metro station, and the quarter around it is the most mixed ground in Lyon, socially and by origin, which is what most people come for. The Rhône is the western edge.
The quarter council draws the rest of the boundary along the cours Gambetta to the north, the boulevard des Tchécoslovaques to the east and the rue de l'Université and the rue Domer to the south. Everything is walkable from the bridge.
About La Guillotière
What are the main landmarks in La Guillotière?
The bridge gave the quarter its name and its business. The pont de la Guillotière carried the road from Lyon to Chambéry and on into Italy, the grande rue de la Guillotière ran up from its head, and the faubourg that grew there was one of tavern keepers and innkeepers whose jurisdiction the Lyonnais and the Dauphiné argued over. Two cemeteries mark the eastern limit.
The gare de la Guillotière on the Paris to Marseille line marks the southern one, and the Metro at Guillotière - Gabriel Péri sits under the old square in the middle. Monplaisir began as a subdivision. The plan for the château des Tournelles estate was drawn in 1828, the lots sold through the 1830s under that name, and the belt of fortifications cut the new ground off from the old bourg.
What is the history of La Guillotière?
Nobody agrees where the name came from. Two innkeepers called Guillot and Thiers have been proposed, so have the grillets, the bells on mule harness, per Guillaume Paradin, and so have druids carrying mistletoe to a hostière by the river, though the plainest reading makes it a place name like La Mulatière from Clément Mulat's estate. The faubourg itself is medieval.
It grew at the head of the Rhône bridge inside the mandement de Bechevelin, which ran from the site of the parc de la Tête d'Or down past Montchat and Chaussagne to near Saint-Fons. Independence came out of a revolt. La Guillotière went into the new commune of Lyon in 1790, then got its own commune back in the repression after the Lyon insurrection of 1793, attached to the Isère and the district of Vienne, before returning to the Rhône in 1796.
The Brotteaux nearly broke away too. They grew north of the commune at the end of the pont Morand of 1775, asked in 1845 to become a separate commune called Les Brotteaux-près-Lyon and were refused, and on 24 March 1852 the whole of La Guillotière went into Lyon as the 3rd arrondissement.
Where is La Guillotière?
La Guillotière covers the northern half of Lyon's 7th arrondissement and the southwest of the 3rd, bounded west by the Rhône, north by the cours Gambetta, east by the boulevard des Tchécoslovaques and south by the rue de l'Université, the rue Marc-Bloch, the rue Domer and the rue du Repos.
Good for
More areas in Lyon
Updated October 2026