Place Sathonay

The Place Sathonay is a square located in the 1st arrondissement of Lyon, France, at the bottom of hill of La Croix-Rousse, in La Martinière quarter. It was named after Nicolas-Marie-Jean-Claude Fay de Sathonay, mayor of Lyon from 1805 to 1812, as a tribute for all the importants works undertaken under his presidency. The square is currently the third largest square in Lyon and belongs to the zone classified as World Heritage Site by UNESCO. According to Lyon geography agrégé Jean Pelletier, it is "one of the most interesting squares of Lyon", because of its harmonious proportions, its boundaries composed of buildings with beautiful 1920s facades, and its plantations, which brings "a charm tinged of poetry" and give it the appearance of a village square.

Before the deliberation of the municipal council on 22 August 1817, the square was called Place de la Déserte. According to the 1268 Tractatus de bellis, inhabitants of Lyon built fortifications in the Déserte to defend themselves from the ecclesiastical authority. In 1296, Blanche de Châlons, widow of the lord of Beaujeu, Rhone acquired from Jean Mallerie the parcel "close the new door" and founded in 1304 the monastery or abbey of the same name, which they gave to the Ladies of Saint Clair or Clarisses or which came under the rule of Saint Benoit. In 1318, Blanche de Châlons' son left the vine of the Varissonnière to the religious order, and in 1439, the businessman Pierre du Nyèvre transferred the Clos of the vine, which enlarged the field of Order of Poor Ladies. In 1745, their possessions were composed of a quadrilateral area bounded by the Rue du Sergent Blandan (south), the Montée des Carmélites (west), the Rue du Bon Pasteur (north) and the Montée de la Grande Côte (east).

From 1791, the property of religious congregations of the hill of La Croix-Rousse were sold and became a national property. The first property auction was that of the Carthusians in September 1791. The gardens of the lower part were given free to the city by decrees of the representative of the people Poulin-Grandpré, on 14 November 1795. In 1802, this steepest part of the land to the north, was turned into a garden of plants, still visible today. The southern part of the place was given to the city on 19 January 1818. The rest of the buildings belongs now to the Department as a national property and was ceded to the Lyon city. Finally, the buildings were destroyed in 1813, excepted the building that currently houses the City Hall of the arrondissement, and replaced by a square paved with pebbles and flat stones.

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