GENERAL PRESENTATION
Since 1982, the Institut Lumière has had its home in the heart of Monplaisir, that historical area of Lyon where the Lumière brothers invented the Cinématographe and where, in 1895, they shot the first film in the history of the cinema : "Sortie d'Usine".

Concurrently, a place of reminiscence and a film theater, the Institut is a genuine Living Museum of the Cinema. Films are screened, directors are invited, exhibitions are organized, young viewers are educated within these walls.
Its double vocation embodies heritage conservation – films, books, photos, posters, pre-cinematographic and cinematographic equipment – and publicity-related artistic activities – film screenings, exhibitions, publication, education and training.
Bertrand Tavernier
President of the Institut Lumière
The Lumière Institute (Villa, Warehouse, Park) is housed on the site of the Lumière factories, where the Cinematograph was invented in 1895. It is a museum, a cinema library, a documentation centre, a place for preservation, and a home to memories.
The Lumière Villa


The first stop on the tour of the Lumière Museum is the Villa. This opens with the Winter Garden, which is also known as the Bernard Chardère Reading Room, and the main living rooms: an Evolution Counter charts the invention of cinema (ground floor).

The tour continues by winding through the maze of rooms in a “castle” built in 1902, before visitors go down the circular stairs into the basement (formerly cellars) where Lumière films are permanently playing, accompanied by a commentary

Visitors then take off up the main staircase towards the first floor. Here they discover Antoine’s bedroom and the room dedicated to the Lyon collector, Paul Génard. The tour culminates with two exhibitions: “The pleasures and the days”, which is based on the Lumières family life, and “Gabriel Veyre’s world”, which is dedicated to the most famous Lumière cinematographer.

On the way to the second floor, visitors pass through the “servants’ quarters”. The last door leads to the Raymond Chirat Library, which is located at the top of the Villa in the former workshop of the painter Antoine Lumière, the father of Louis and Auguste. From the adjacent terrace, visitors have a wonderful view of the whole site.

After returning to reception, visitors are encouraged to take a stroll around the Park (and through its “Inventors’ Alley”) and along Rue du Premier-Film (with its “Film-makers Wall”), which is where Lumière positioned his Cinematograph to shoot La Sortie des usines Lumière (Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory).

The tour concludes in the First Film Warehouse, the first ever film set in the history of cinema. Classified as a Historical Monument in 1995, this Warehouse is now home to the Lumière Institute’s cinema theatre.