Titanic in Lyon: new immersive exhibition dives into the past of historic legendary liner

It's been 113 years since the Titanic's tragic maiden voyage on 14 April 1912 and world's interest with the luxury cruise liner continues to grow.

The Titanic: An Immersive Voyage exhibition aims to feed our fascination by offering visitors life-size reconstructions, period objects, 3D projections and, as the centrepiece of the exhibition, a virtual reality experience.

Each room is a progression through the all-too-short history of this extraordinary ship.

Construction of the Titanic began in 1909. Commissioned by the White Star Line, she was designed by naval architect Thomas Andrews at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland. At 269 metres long and 28 metres wide, she was the largest vessel ever built.

A few photos, plans and a sumptuous scale model help us to understand the complexity, innovation and grandeur of such a construction site.

A little further on, period documents show visitors advertisements for the inaugural Atlantic crossing to New York, as well as embarkation maps.

Immediate boarding

At Southampton on 10 April 1912, the voyage began with 885 crew members on board, including Captain Edward John Smith, and more than 1,300 passengers from all social classes.

A little further on, period documents show visitors advertisements for the inaugural Atlantic crossing to New York, as well as boarding cards.

The following rooms are devoted to reconstructions of emblematic parts of the ship, such as the grand staircase and first-class restaurant, the radio room from which the SOS was sent out and the command post.

If you've seen James Cameron's film Titanic over and over again (some of the objects and the film's script are also present in this exhibition), you won't be surprised to find them here, but the layout, lighting and attention to detail of some of the sets and 1:1 scale scenes won't leave you indifferent.

The exhibition also features more than 300 authentic artefacts, chosen from the most complete collection ever assembled on the Titanic.

As one of the members of Tempora told me, some of the objects on display were recovered from the water by passengers who escaped the tragedy, others from the wreck, and some others come from the Titanic'**s twin sisters, the Britannic, which sank in the Aegean Sea during the First World War, and the Olympic, which had a much longer career from 1911 to 1935.

This exhibition has been made possible by the meticulous work of international experts and collectors. Take your time to look at them, for there are some real treasures on display.

The iceberg is the second star

Their common destiny was sealed. The iceberg, whose origin - Greenland - is explained with the help of a map and an audio commentary, the boat's excessive speed, the mistakes made by the crew, the number of rowing boats that were either too few or too full, and the lookout who had no binoculars - a small accident at best, but a disaster in reality, waiting to happen.

Visitors can now experience the tragedy 'as if you were there'.

Firstly, by taking a spot in the crow's nest in the place of the two sailors, Frederick Fleet and Reginald Reed, who saw the iceberg (much too late) in the night.

At the heart of the shipwreck

The sinking is then revealed in all its intensity. Seated in a lifeboat, visitors are plunged as close as possible to the tragedy, surrounded by the immense 360° screen. Detailed computer-generated images and authentic telegraph dispatches exchanged between the Titanic and the liners, including the Carpathia, which arrived on the scene around five hours after the sinking, heighten the emotion: each distress signal sounds like a cry that is lost in the enormous immensity of the ocean.

On board the dinghy, in front of you, objects, floating suitcases, the last moments of the Titanic. The sounds and cries of the survivors who could not get into a life-raft and were condemned to freeze to death within a few minutes of being in the icy water, the muffled sounds of the ship sinking slowly into the abyss.

The room is completely silent at this point in the exhibition, as if time has stopped.

Before reaching the virtual reality room, you will pass through other rooms with video projections, various objects, screens focusing on certain famous passengers, and a 4DX experience.

VR, a world without limits

You think you've seen it all? I'm not going to spoil it for you, but as soon as one of the operators puts a VR helmet on your head, you'll enter a large empty room, and above all another dimension!

Here you can see the Titanic from every angle, including the wreck, which has been mapped and reconstructed over the years by specialist companies, bringing this captivating and grandiose journey through time to a fitting conclusion.

Titanic: An Immersive Voyage is now on at La Sucrière in Lyon, France until 4 January, 2026.