The Tête d’Or park is the most important in Lyon and one of the largest in France. Like the Palais du Commerce, it was created thanks to the prefect Vaisse. It was inaugurated in 1857, the same year in which the Central Park in New York was opened. It was later enriched with the construction of several buildings including a large greenhouse in 1865, a velodrome, cottages for the guards in 1894, the fence in 1896, other greenhouses in 1899, a monument to the fallen of the First World War and the new rose garden between 1961 and 1964.
The park covers 117 hectares. The Swiss landscape agronomist Denis Bühler was inspired by the Boulogne woods and English gardens to give the park its current appearance, a task that required a lot of work. The park includes a 16-hectare lake, a zoo and a botanical garden. The large romantic lawns alternate with orchards of hundred-year-old trees, while the flower beds offer colours and fragrances in every season.
