Passage de l'Argue, covered passageway in the Bellecour quarter, 2nd arrondissement of Lyon, France
The Passage de l'Argue is a covered walkway in Lyon's 2nd arrondissement connecting Rue de Brest to Rue de la République and topped by a glass roof. The corridor is lined with shops featuring wooden fronts, hanging lanterns provide soft lighting, and classical arches frame the structure throughout its length.
The passage was rebuilt from 1825 to designs by architect Vincent Farge on houses bought and demolished by Coste, Casati, Dugueyt and Millon, and reopened in 1828. In 1834, during the Canut revolts, Republicans hid inside and it was ransacked; in November 1840 it flooded after heavy rain. It was cut in two by the Rue Édouard-Herriot under the Second Empire in 1860.
The passage's name comes from its connection to precious metal work, where craftspeople once shaped gold and silver into fine decorative threads. The wooden shop fronts and hanging lanterns visible today reflect how locals and visitors have used this space as a gathering point and shopping street for nearly two centuries.
The passage is entirely pedestrian and runs from 43 Rue de Brest to 40 Rue de la République, crossing Rue Édouard-Herriot, so it can be walked in two separate stretches. The Petit Passage de l'Argue, once an exit onto Rue Thomassin, has been closed to the public since 2006. The tiled floor is level and the glass roof shelters it in rain.
The heart-shaped structure installed in 2018 stands in the central rotunda, not on the glass roof, and is covered with a mosaic of tiles and mirrors. It replaced the third statue of Mercury, a replica of Giambologna's flying figure, which was stolen in 2011 after an earlier theft in 1995 and a reinstallation in 1996.
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