Lyons hall - one of the most well-balanced interiors of Charles Cameron - strict, concise and at the same time bright and solemn. The interior was created in 1781 – 1783 as one of the personal rooms of Catherine II and got its name due to the walls decoration with silk from the city of Lyon (France).

     Aquarelle  Luigi Premazzi.1878.

In the middle of the XIX century the interior was renovated and used as a grand parlour on the half of Maria Alexandrovna, the wife of the future Emperor Alexander II. From 1848 to 1861, the architect Ippolit Monighetti changed the interior design: he updated the colour scheme of the silk and installed a few fireplaces with marble figures of putti. He also ordered new pieces of furniture, chandeliers and sconces from Baikal and Badakhshan lapis lazuli, effectively decorated with gilded bronze. The mirror frames and chandelier were decorated with the monogram of the owner of the interior - the Empress Maria Alexandrovna.

Completely destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, the Lyons Hall long awaited for its revival. Only 25 items, made according to the sketches of Monighetti from Afghan lapis lazuli and gilded bronze, survived the war.

     After the Great Patriotic War.1948.

The chief architect of the museum, Alexander Kedrinsky (1917 - 2003), developed a restoration project of the Lyons hall in 1983. Only in 2006-2007 the project was adjusted. To complete the restoration of the hall more than 350 million rubles are required. In view of the extremely costly and time-consuming restoration, the work has been carried out gradually and fragmentarily. Since 2003, "Tsarskoselskaya Amber Workshop" has restored 5 interior items and 45% of the parquet floor. In November 2011 the Monighetti chandelier which, after returning from the evacuation, was kept in the museum's funds, was returned to its historical place.

In February 2017, the first door portal was installed. It took seven months of painstaking work and 200 kg of Afghan sky-blue lapis lazuli from the Badakhshan deposit. Painful work was carried out by restorers of the Tsarskoselskaya Amber Workshop with the financial support of the Transsoyuz charitable foundation. Plates of lapis lazuli with a thickness of 3-3.5 mm. were mounted on a stone foundation in the technique of the "Russian mosaic" in such a way that a monolith effect is created.

     Lyons hall. 2017.

The French company ENGIE, a partner of Gazprom, provided financial assistance in the reconstruction of the silk upholstery of the walls and furniture of the Lyons hall. Fabric was woven at the same manufactory, which supplied silk for the Lyons hall in the middle of the XIX century. Fortunately, small cuts of this fabric which served as models for large-scale work were preserved in the archives of the French weaving manufactory and in the collections of the state museum-preserve Tsarskoye Selo.

The Tsarskoye Selo Museum-preserve presented the Lyons hall with restored silk upholstery of walls, lapis lazuli portals, panels and frieze to the public in May 2019.