Salle Rameau, Concert hall in 1st arrondissement of Lyon, France

Salle Rameau is a municipal concert hall on rue de la Martinière in the Terreaux district of Lyon's 1st arrondissement, built in Art Nouveau style by architect François Clermont with Eugène Ribout in barely more than a year. Its Martinière facade has four composite-order columns with carved capitals, a blue-on-gold mosaic band reading "SALLE RAMEAU", and two mosaic panels by Mangier and Guillermin showing Polymnie with a scroll and Euterpe with a lyre. The hall originally held 1,535 seated places; a renovation by the Compagnie de Phalsbourg is to reopen it with a 900-seat auditorium.

The hall was planned after the safety closure of the quai Saint-Antoine philharmonic hall, so that Georges Martin Witkowski could house his Société musicale. The Lyon council approved the arrangement with the Compagnie immobilière du 1er arrondissement on 25 February 1907, and Fallières and Clemenceau laid the first stone that spring. Architects François Clermont and Eugène Ribout built it in Art nouveau style in barely a year, with 1,535 seats. It opened on 8 November 1908 with Rameau's Les Fêtes d'Hébé and Beethoven's Ninth, played by over 200 musicians.

The name honours Jean-Philippe Rameau: the inaugural concert on 8 November 1908 opened with the air des Fêtes d'Hébé from his opera, played by over 200 musicians of the Société des grands concerts de Lyon. On the rue de la Martinière facade, two mosaics by Mangier and Guillermin show the muses Polymnie with a scroll and Euterpe with a lyre, beneath a band reading "SALLE RAMEAU".

The hall stands on rue de la Martinière in the Terreaux quarter, between rue Hippolyte-Flandrin and rue Louis-Vitet, a short walk from the Terreaux metro station. The building is closed pending renovation, so the sculpted facade and the two mosaics of Polymnie and Euterpe are currently seen from the street only. Look up at the rounded section for the Lyon coat of arms and the verse of Clément Marot.

The facade on rue de la Martinière carries two mosaics by Mangier and Guillermin: Polymnie with a scroll and Euterpe with a lyre, set in gold panels beneath a blue-on-gold band reading "SALLE RAMEAU". Above the windows are carved castles, towers and cornucopias, and the rounded section bears Lyon's coat of arms with Clément Marot's line "suis le lion qui ne mord point, sinon quand l'ennemi me poingt".