What to See in Dijon - Top Sights and Attractions

Gothic church adorned with gargoyles. The Church of Notre-Dame of Dijon is a Roman Catholic church in Dijon. Considered a masterpiece of 13th-century Gothic architecture, it is situated at the heart of the preserved old centre of the city. It is located in Place Notre-Dame, near the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy and opposite the rue Musette.

Work on the church began around 1230. The church contains the statue of Notre-Dame de Bon-Espoir, formerly called the Black Madonna. The church's decorations also include two symbols of Dijon: the jacquemart (bell-striking automaton) and the owl. The church was classified as a Monument Historique in the List of historic monuments of 1840. The chapel of the Assumption, the sacristy, and the gallery that links them have been listed as Monuments Historiques since 5 July 2002.^[1]

Museum in Dijon, France. The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon is a museum of fine arts opened in 1787 in Dijon, France. It is one of the main and oldest museums of France. It is located in the historic city centre of Dijon and housed in the former ducal palace which was the headquarters of the Burgundy State in the 15th century. When the duchy was assimilated to the Kingdom of France, the palace became the house of the King. In the 17th century it became the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy following a project by Jules Hardouin-Mansart.

Since 2006, the museum has been in a process of full renovation and extension. First, the work focused on one part including the renovated route “Middle-Ages – Renaissance”, inaugurated on September 7th 2013. The fully-renovated museum displaying 1500 works of art in 50 different rooms was inaugurated on May 17th 2019 in the presence of the Minister for Culture Franck Riester, the former French President François Hollande and the Mayor François Rebsamen.^[3]

Botanical garden in Dijon, France. The Jardin botanique de l'Arquebuse is a botanical garden and arboretum located at 1 Avenue Albert-Premier, Dijon, Côte-d'Or, Bourgogne, France. It is open daily without charge.

The garden is located within a larger park and garden (5 hectares) created on the former 16th-century training grounds for chevaliers of the arquebus. There, in the late 18th century, the chevaliers' last captain built an English garden on the site to designs by noted landscaper Jean-Marie Morel, which in 1803 became city property. In 1833 the plants from Dijon's first botanical garden, established 1771 by writer Bénigne Legouz de Gerland (1695–1774), were transferred to form today's botanical garden, which was named a Conservatoire Botanique Régional in 2002.

Today the garden contains nearly 4,000 plant species with an emphasis on the flora of Bourgogne. Its collections include a systematic collection (3,352 taxa), regional flora of Bourgogne (1,423 taxa), French native plants (789 species), and 1,140 species from the rest of the world, with specimens of ornamental plants, food plants, succulents, carnivorous plants, subtropical plants, and Mediterranean plants. It also contains an arboretum, a herbarium containing about 100,000 specimens, greenhouses, and a school of botany, as well as an extensive collection of Anatidae (wild ducks, geese, and swans).^[8]

Museum in Dijon, France. The Musée d'art sacré de Dijon is a municipal museum of Catholic Burgundian sacred art inaugurated in 1980 by Canon Jean Marilier in the Église Sainte-Anne of Dijon. It is labeled "Musée de France" and was associated in 1993 with the Musée de la Vie Bourguignonne Perrin Puycousin located in the nearby monastery. In 1950, the city of Dijon bought the Église Sainte-Anne located at the 17 rue Sainte-Anne to house the museum in 1979. It exhibits sculptures, paintings, furniture, objects of Catholic worship and many relics, which the Church abandoned their use in various religious reforms. In the grandstands there is a large collection of religious clothing, mainly of the 19th and 20th centuries. The museum gathers liturgical objects of the 12th to the 19th century used for Catholic worship, and shows the lives of communities of women belonging to various spiritual families. There are many works by Jean-Baptiste Bouchardon.^[10]

Large, historic palace museum. The Palace of the Dukes and Estates of Burgundy or Palais des ducs et des États de Bourgogne is a remarkably well-preserved architectural assemblage in Dijon. The oldest part is the 14th and 15th century Gothic ducal palace and seat of the Dukes of Burgundy, made up of a logis still visible on place de la Liberation, the ducal kitchens on cour de Bar, the tour de Philippe le Bon, a "guette" overlooking the whole city, and tour de Bar. Most of what can be seen today, however, was built in the 17th and especially the 18th centuries, in a classical style, when the palace was a royal residence building and housed the estates of Burgundy. Finally, the 19th façade of the musée on place de la Sainte-Chapelle was added on the site of the palace's Sainte-Chapelle, demolished in 1802. The Palace houses the city's town hall and the musée des Beaux-Arts.^[13]

Art museum in Dijon, France. Le Consortium is a contemporary art center based in Dijon founded by Xavier Douroux & Franck Gautherot, among others, from the association Le Coin du Miroir. The center was run by Douroux, in collaboration with Gautherot and Eric Troncy. In 1982, The consortium was awarded the Art Center label, and moved to an old 600 m2 appliance store in downtown Dijon and in 1983, Le Coin du Miroir, À La Limite and Déjà Vu joined and became a single entity. In 1991, Le Consortium expanded by moving to a 4,000 m2 factory on the outskirts of Dijon. In 1996, Troncy joined Le Consortium as co-director and in 2000, Kim Seung-duk joined as co-curator and director of international development. In 2009, Le Consortium launched an office on Hoxton Street in London, directed by Sophie Claudel and in 2011, a new building was opened, designed by Shigeru Ban^[14]