Département: Isère
Vienne lies 30km/20mi south of Lyons on the left bank of the Rhône, which is joined here by its tributary the Gève, on the important traffic route between Burgundy and the Mediterranean.
Originally the chief town of a Gallic tribe, the Allobroges, the Roman town of Vienna became in
the Imperial period the second capital of southern Gaul. In the third century it became the see of a bishop, and thereafter enjoyed a period of prosperity under episcopal rule. In 879 Boso, Count of Vienne, became king of Lower Burgundy, and in the 12th century the town was capital of the Dauphiné. It was united with France in 1450-1451.
Vienne has many well preserved buildings of the Gallo-Roman, Romanesque and Gothic periods.
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