Carnot campus in Lyon

A contemporary learning environment in the heart of Lyon

More than a place of study, Carnot Campus brings together Lyon's architectural heritage, innovative teaching and UCLy's international outlook.

Covering 14,000 m² across five levels, Carnot Campus provides students with a modern learning environment in the heart of Lyon. Lecture theatres, a university library, language laboratories, collaborative learning spaces, a cafeteria and student facilities all contribute to both academic success and campus life.

Carnot Campus is home to:

• The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Departments of Anthropology and Sociology, Psychology, and Education);
• The Faculty of Philosophy and UNIVA;
• The Faculty of Literature and Civilisations (Departments of Literature and History, ESTRI, Richelieu Institute and the UNESCO Chair "Memory, Cultures and Interculturality");
• UCLy Cambridge Examination Centre;
• ILCF – Institute of French Language and Culture;
• The Faculty of Theology, together with an oratory open to the entire university community
• Several research groups belonging to UCLy's multidisciplinary research unit, Confluence: Sciences and Humanities;
• A university library and learning resource centre;
• 7 lecture theatres seating up to 340 people;
• 41 classrooms, 2 language laboratories, a 100-seat examination hall, a cafeteria and student facilities.

A historic site: from Bissuel barracks to UCLy's Carnot campus

1839: a barracks born from a private initiative

Built in 1839 on the former Place Napoléon, now Place Carnot, the Bissuel Barracks were the result of a private initiative. At the time, military officers in Lyon needed premises to house their equipment and horses, but the French Army lacked the financial resources to fund such a project. Undeterred, the officers raised the necessary funds themselves, while architect Jean-Prosper Bissuel agreed both to design the building and to defer payment of his fees.

In 1841, the French State acquired the barracks and reimbursed the officers who had financed its construction. Jean-Prosper Bissuel also received the fees he had agreed to defer. Although officially renamed the “Royal Barracks”/”Caserne royale”, the building continued to be known as the Bissuel Barracks.

A few decades later, in 1875, another member of the Bissuel family entered Lyon's history. Former Member of Parliament Louis-Gabriel Bissuel de Saint-Victor joined around thirty Lyonnais lay people to found a Catholic university. Its first faculty, devoted to law, opened near Place Bellecour, just a short walk from the Bissuel Barracks.

More than 130 years later, in September 2005, that same university inaugurated its second campus on the site of the former barracks, which had meanwhile served as the headquarters of the Fifth Military Region.

Architect Jean-Prosper Bissuel and university founder Louis-Gabriel Bissuel de Saint-Victor belonged to the same family. This family connection gives Carnot Campus a unique historical significance: long before UCLy moved here, the history of the barracks and that of the university were already closely intertwined.

2005: a new chapter in UCLy's history

In the early 1990s, the expansion of UCLy’s academic programmes and the steady growth in student numbers led the university to plan a second campus to complement its historic site near Place Bellecour.

Vacant since 1992, the Bissuel Barracks, formerly home to the headquarters of the Fifth Military Region, soon attracted the attention of the then Rector, Monsignor Christian Ponson (1990–1999). Ideally located close to Perrache railway station and Lyon city centre, the site offered the perfect setting for UCLy’s continued development.

An ambitious redevelopment project gradually transformed the former military barracks into a modern 14,000 m² university campus while preserving the site’s architectural heritage. The historic façade of the Bissuel Barracks was carefully integrated into a contemporary design created by architects Garbit & Blondeau, combining heritage with modern architecture. At the heart of the building, the “Cone of Knowledge”/”Cône du savoir” forms the architectural focal point of the campus. It symbolises the pursuit of knowledge and the aspiration towards light. Deliberately inclined and truncated at its summit, it reflects the idea that knowledge is always evolving, open to questioning and discovery.

Carnot Campus officially opened in September 2005 and was inaugurated on 20 October 2005 by Rector Michel Quesnel (2003–2011). Today, it welcomes several thousand students each year and brings together UCLy's main disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, literature, languages, philosophy and theology, continuing the story of a site that has accompanied Lyon's development for nearly two centuries.