And it is in stone, more nobly worked, that the Cistercian monks constructed the Abbey of Fontenay (a World Heritage Site); and that the little Medieval city of Semur-en-Auxois or the austere village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain were built. Burgundy is a land of the Romans and it is in stone that they wrote their books and their beliefs: the large churches, as Vezelay, Tournus or Autun are at the center of a dense network of little roman churches and chapels that dot the countryside.
Gallo-Roman Burgundy:
Cities of the Dukes, land of the Romans and even before that, the land of the Celts and the Gallo-Romans. Finally united to confront the Roman legions of Caesar, these tribes suffered a huge defeat in the battle led by Vercingétorix at Alésia. Burgundy is all that.
Vercingetorix in Alésia
The Tombs of the Dukes in Dijon
Later, in a world that urbanized, the Dukes of Burgundy:
The Dukes of the West, as they called themselves, were to give an extraordinary luster to their cities: Beaune and its Hospices; and above all their capital, Dijon, with its ducal palace and the Chartreuse de Champmol that is world famous because of its sculptural masterpiece of the Flemish Claus Sluter.
And one of the last, but not the least, charms of this region:
It is of course its wine, that of Chablis, of the Côte de Nuits or of the Côtes de Beaune … as well as the Côte Challonnaise.
