Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or departement and
of the Bourgogne region.
Dijon is the historical capital of the province of Burgundy.
Population (2005): 150,800 for the commune; 236,953 for the greater Dijon area.
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Dijon
DIJON owes its origins to its strategic
position in Celtic times on the tin merchants' route from Britain up the Seine and across the Alps
to the Adriatic. It became the capital of the dukes of Burgundy
in around 1000 AD, but its golden age occurred in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries under the auspices of dukes Philippe
le Hardi (the Bold), who as a boy had fought the English at Poitiers
and been taken prisoner, Jean sans Peur (the Fearless), Philippe
le Bon (the Good), who sold Joan of Arc to the English, and Charles
le Téméraire (the Bold). They used their tremendous
wealth and power - especially their control of Flanders, the
dominant manufacturing region of the age - to make Dijon one
of the greatest centres of art, learning and science in Europe.
It lost its capital status on incorporation into the kingdom
of France in 1477, but has remained one of the country's pre-eminent
provincial cities, especially since the rail and industrial booms
of the mid-nineteenth century. Today, it is smart, modern and
young, especially when the students are around.
The rue de la Liberté
forms the major east-west axis of the town, running from the
wide, attractive place Darcy and the eighteenth-century triumphal
arch of Porte Guillaume , once a city gate, past the palace of
the dukes of Burgundy on the semicircular place de la Libératio,
east to the church of St Michel . The street is pedestrianized
and lined with smart shops and elegant old houses, and most places
of interest are within fifteen minutes' walk to the north or
south of it.
OTHER POPULAR DESTINATIONS IN FRANCE