Vienne

French town in the département of Isère on the River Rhône, 26 km/16 mi south of Lyons; population (1990) 29,400. Vienne has woollen and metal manufacturing industries; tourism is important. The town's history goes back more than 2,000 years and there are Roman remains.

Once the capital of the Allobroges, Vienne became a Roman colony under Caesar about 47 BC. Remaining Roman buildings include the 1st-century temple of Augustus and Livia. During the 5th and 6th centuries, and again at the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th centuries, Vienne was the home of the Burgundian kings. The church of St Maurice (11th-16th centuries) was once their cathedral.