Ermitage du Mont Cindre

Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d'Or

At the summit of Mont Cindre, 470 metres above Lyon, a hermitage has been recorded since very early times: tradition has it founded in 1341 by Brother Jean Henri, a monk of the Île Barbe, and Archbishop Amédée de Talaru issued instructions for its upkeep between 1415 and 1444. Pope Julius II officially recognised it by a bull of 1511. The present chapel, in yellow and grey stone, dates from 1675; 24 metres long by 9 wide, it received a portico in 1733, then the title of Notre-Dame de Toute-Puissance from 1820, and a Way of the Cross of which eight cast-iron crosses survive out of the fourteen donated in 1837. The place owes its strangeness above all to the last permanent hermit, Émile François Damidot, known as Brother François, a mason by training, who lived there from 1878 to 1910. For thirty-two years, with salvaged stones and cement, he raised a rock garden peopled with grottoes, niches, pools, miniature chapels and a twelve-metre belvedere, a naive and dizzying world overlooking the Saône valley. The chapel also houses frescoes by the painter Louis Touchagues. After two years of restoration, the site has reopened to the public for guided tours, and the garden, long hidden from view, can be discovered once again.

Mont Cindre et son ermitage - Histoire et patrimoine ↗

Getting there : Chemin de l'Ermitage, 69450 Saint-Cyr-au-Mont-d'Or, at the summit of Mont Cindre, the fourth-highest point in the Lyon metropolitan area. Reachable by car from Saint-Cyr or on foot by the footpaths of the Monts d'Or; coordinates of the summit. Guided tours on Saturdays and Sundays at 2.30 pm, 3.45 pm and 5 pm, and on Wednesdays during school holidays, by reservation; price around 8 euros. Many steps; site not recommended for people with reduced mobility; only the chapel is wheelchair-accessible.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound