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Origin and history

The church Our Lady of Dijon, considered a jewel of Gothic architecture, was built between the 1220s and 1250s on the site of a 12th century Romanesque chapel, which was built in place of a modest chapel of St Mary dating back to 1150. Originally located outside the walls of the city, it became intramural in 1137 and played a central role in the communal life of Dijonna after 1187, serving as a place of oath for mayors and a repository for archives. Its innovative architecture, like the absence of bow-buttons, was dictated by the smallness of the popular district where it rises, near the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy.

The western facade, of a flatness unique in France, skilfully masks the interior structure and sorries false gargoyles carved in the nineteenth century, replacing medieval origins destroyed after a fatal accident in 1240. The church houses treasures such as the statue of Our Lady of Good Hope, a wooden Virgin of the 11th or 12th century, formerly black, and 13th century stained glass windows in the north transept. A symbol of resistance, it was associated with two "miracles" during the seats of Dijon in 1513 (by the Swiss) and 1944 (by the Germans), celebrated by commemorative tapestries.

Classified as a historic monument in 1840, Notre-Dame was restored from 1865 to 1884 by Émile Boeswillwald and Eugène Millet, who restored his supposed medieval appearance, removing the baroque additions and rebuilding the lantern tower. The chapel of the Assumption, built in neo-Gothic style between 1877 and 1882 by Édouard Mairet, now houses Baroque elements of the church, such as the major altar of 1684. The Jacquemart, an automatic watchmaker offered by Philip the Hardi in 1383 after the plundering of Courtrai, and the owl, a pagan sculpture polished by the hands of passers-by, embody the Dijonnaise identity.

The stained glass windows, partially original (11th century) and partially recreated by Edward Didron in the 19th century, illuminate an interior marked by a Latin cross plan and sexpartite vaults. The organ, rebuilt in 1895, succeeds an instrument played by Jean-Philippe Rameau in the 18th century. Finally, the owl, restored in 2001 after an act of vandalism, became the emblem of a tourist journey and a local mythology, mixing superstitions and heritage pride.

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