🇫🇷France·Open to the public

Great Glasshouses of the Parc de la Tête d'Or

Lyon

Year
1877–1880
Architect
Théodore Jean-François Domenget
Style
Nineteenth-century structural ironwork with a central dome
Dimensions
21 m high, ≈1,900 m²
« Nicknamed the 'cathedral of glass and steel', they hold a cycad planted at the 1883 opening — the botanical garden's oldest resident. »

Built between 1877 and 1880 to replace timber glasshouses from 1865, the Great Glasshouses of the Lyon botanical garden opened in 1883. Their central dome, repaired after serious structural damage in 1972, makes them among the tallest glasshouses in France. Long reserved for pharmacy and medical students, they gradually opened to the general public. The collections, arranged by continent since a 1990s renovation, emphasise useful tropical plants.

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View on the interactive globe

45.78° N, 4.85° E

Further reading

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