Archives de Lyon

What Archives de Lyon does

Archives de Lyon is the municipal archive service of the Ville de Lyon, operating under SIRET 216 901 231 02 942 as a designated municipal public service responsible for collecting, classifying, conserving, communicating, and valorizing the archival heritage of the city. It is headquartered at 1 place des archives, 69002 Lyon, in the former Centre de tri postal building relocated to in October 2001, and is led by director Louis Faivre d'Arcier with a staff of approximately 30-40 people (33 permanent plus 7 intermittent, or roughly 30 permanent per alternate source). The service manages extensive holdings including 584 documented Lyon buildings, 4,436 streets, the STCL transport photographic collection, and multi-century municipal records spanning maps, plans, photographs, administrative records, and genealogical documents.

Its core platform consists of a digital archive management system with an online searchable database at recherches.archives-lyon.fr functioning as a virtual reading room, alongside a physical reading room open Monday to Friday from 1pm to 5pm. Adjacent offerings include temporary exhibitions, educational workshops and guided visits for schools and the general public, a publication boutique, open data initiatives under the Etalab 2.0 license with CC-BY-NC-SA content licensing, and participatory editathon programs. Technical differentiators include integration with Wikimedia Commons, Wikisource, Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, uMap, and the data.grandlyon.com open data platform.

The entity is funded primarily through the Ville de Lyon municipal budget, with marginal self-generated revenue from publication sales (e.g., 25€ per exhibition catalog), reproduction fees for massive public-information reuse (100€ HT fixed fee plus 0.003€ HT per file beyond 100 files), and event-driven commercial activity. Customer segments are horizontally distributed across genealogy enthusiasts, schools and students, academic researchers, and the general public, with no single commercial customer of material scale. The service operates under a regulatory and structural monopoly granted by its municipal designation, and has been recognized with the Label Culture Libre (bronze) awarded by Wikimédia France on April 25, 2023.

Name

Archives de Lyon

Legal name

Archives municipales de Lyon

Website

https://archives-lyon.fr

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Archives de Lyon is the municipal archive service of the Ville de Lyon, collecting, conserving, and providing public access to Lyon's historical records through a virtual reading room, physical reading room, exhibitions, educational workshops, and open data initiatives under the Etalab 2.0 license.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cultural Archive Services

NAICS

Libraries and Archives (51921), Libraries and Archives (519210), Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions (712)

akta.pro primary industry

Archives, Special Collections & Preservation Operations (Rare Materials, Conservation) (EDAEAGAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Libraries, Archives & Special Collections (BPAGAHAF), National Archives, Records & Information Governance (BPAIAAAG)

Keywords

• Municipal archive services
• Historical document preservation
• Genealogical research services
• Cultural heritage mediation
• Digital archive access

Headquarters

HQ city

Lyon

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Municipal government funding: Primary funding from Ville de Lyon municipal budget, supported by taxpayer resources
2. Publication sales: Sale of exhibition catalogs, books, and reproductions such as the Polaroid exhibition catalog at 25€
3. Reproduction services: Fees for massive reuse of public information (beyond 100 files): 100€ HT fixed fee plus 0.003€ HT per file, plus technical extraction costs

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Archives de Lyon is a municipal archive service that collects, classifies, conserves, communicates, and valorizes the historical archives of the City of Lyon. It provides physical access to original documents through an on-site reading room, online access to digitized collections and genealogical records via a virtual reading room, temporary exhibitions, educational workshops and tours, cultural events programming, and a publication shop. Complementary offerings include open data initiatives, thematic image galleries, and participatory wiki events for community-driven heritage documentation.

Product overview

Archives de Lyon operates as a municipal archives service offering a unified platform combining physical access (reading room and exhibitions) with digital services. The core offering includes the Recherches Archives de Lyon virtual reading room providing online access to digitized funds, genealogical databases, and inventories. Adjacent services include temporary exhibitions, educational workshops and tours, cultural events programming, and a publication shop. Digital enhancement comes through open data initiatives, thematic image galleries, building databases, and participatory wiki projects that allow public contribution to heritage documentation. The service integrates with external platforms including data.grandlyon.com for open data distribution, OpenStreetMap for geographic access, and Wikimedia projects (Commons, Wikipedia, Wikisource) for collaborative digitization and transcription efforts.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Recherches Archives de Lyon (Virtual Reading Room)
• Salle de Lecture (Reading Room)
• Expositions Temporaires (Temporary Exhibitions)
• Ateliers et Visites (Workshops and Tours)
• Boutique (Publication Shop)
• Reproduction and Reuse Services

Quantifiable outcome

• Label Culture Libre (bronze level) awarded by Wikimédia France on April 25, 2023
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Hospices civils de LyonminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 June 2025Joint participation in Journée culture et numérique de Wikimédia France alongside Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon
• Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon (BML)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 January 2025Joint editathon collaboration on architecture with BML's Numelyo team, demonstrating cross-institution cultural cooperation
• Wikimédia FrancecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 March 2024Formal partnership for wiki collaboration including editathons, Wikimedia Commons contributions, and open content initiatives. Archives contribute digitized images and participate in international archive week events.
• Hospices civils de LyonminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerArchives of the Hospices civils de Lyon managed within the Archives municipales de Lyon system

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Archives municipales de Bordeaux: Bordeaux's municipal archive service, comparable in mission and offerings (genealogical research, exhibitions, digitized collections) to Archives de Lyon for another major French city.
• Archives municipales de Toulouse: Toulouse's municipal archive service, comparable as another French municipal archive providing reading rooms, exhibitions, and digital access to historical fonds for a major metropolitan area.
• Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon (BML): Lyon's municipal library service, a direct comparator as a municipal public institution in Lyon focused on cultural heritage, collections, and public access. Already collaborates with Archives de Lyon through joint editathons and shared cultural programming.
• Archives municipales de Paris: Paris's municipal archive service, the most direct French peer: provides the same triad of reading room, exhibitions, and digitized collections, but at much larger scale. Closest functional and structural analogue in France.
• Archives municipales de Marseille: Marseille's municipal archive service, comparable in scope and structure to Archives de Lyon as a city-level archive providing historical documents, digitized collections, and cultural mediation for a major French city.

Broad incumbents

• Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF): France's national library, hosting Gallica digital library. Comparable as a digital preservation and access institution but with much broader collection scope and national remit.
• Archives nationales de France: France's national archive institution; overlaps with Archives de Lyon in archival mission and digitized access, but operates at national scope over state-level rather than municipal records. Sets national standards and policy frameworks.

Regional players

• Archives départementales du Rhône: Departmental-level archives for the Rhône region, historically overlapping with Archives de Lyon's catchment. Provides broader departmental scope rather than municipal focus, with similar archival and digitization functions.

Others

• Wikimédia France: French chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation and a strategic partner of Archives de Lyon; enables open data distribution, editathons, and Wikimedia Commons contributions. Functionally an ecosystem enabler rather than a competitor.
• Gallica (BnF digital library): BnF's digital library platform, comparable as a digital archive infrastructure but at national scope with broader collections. Provides a reference point for what scaled digitization and open access at French public archives can look like.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCe3wiHHZ3dsvnRSczdF6jHQ
• Facebookfacebook.com/archivesdelyon
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/archivesdelyon
• Instagraminstagram.com/archivesdelyon

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Archives de Lyon