The optical properties of LaCl3:Ce crystal are reported in this paper. Optical transmission spectrum, photoluminescence and time resolved photoluminescence spectra at different temperatures are investigated. It is found that optical transmittance is as high as 80% between 320 nm and 600 nm, and no obvious absorption band is found in this region. Emission intensity and decay time of photoluminescence are quite stable with the change of the temperature between 80 K and 500 K. No thermal quenching is present up to 500 K, and decay time keeps at 17 ± 2 ns. With the increase of the temperature, the whole emission bands and excitation bands present broadening and overlapping, leading to the strengthening of re-absorption of the Ce3+ emission, which makes the emission spectra have a red shift trend.