Le Plan Scénographique de Lyon c. 1550 is a giant axonometric scenic map of the French city of Lyon created during the height of the French Renaissance. The complete map is 1.7 meters high by 2.2 meters wide and is composed from 25 copperplate-printed, laid-paper sheets, each 34x44cm on average. Probably the earliest detailed view of the city, "Le 1550 Plan Scéno" was produced approximately between 1544 (identified as the principal date of the survey drawings) and 1553 (after which date some built structures depicted in the map are known to have no longer existed).

Because the map is both very large and very detailed, the 2.5 gigapixel image published here is many times larger than most digitized maps available on the Web, allowing viewers to zoom in and view details at a high resolution (~384 pixels per centimeter of the original). The scale bar accurately shows the real-world measurements of the original map in centimeters. To view the original map at it's approximate real-world dimensions, set the zoom level to ~32%. the 1876 facsimilé is approximately the same size as the original. The other four derivative maps are significantly smaller and therefore the ruler is not accurate for those maps and they will appear very blurry when closely zoomed in on.

Note that the images may temporarily appear blurry as the site waits for the high-resolution images to download (dependent on the server speed and your Internet connection). To accelerate the loading of the part of the map you are currently looking at, I have found that it often helps to reload the page at its current view (the url address contains the current XYZ coordinates, so the map will not reset).

Click here to view the map(s) with added floatover captions for religious buildings and GIFs detailing Cathedrale Saint-Jean.
Visit gistro.wordpress.com to learn more about the Lyon map and this project.