Cathédrale Saint-Bénigne de Dijon

Dijon

Beneath the Gothic vaults of the cathedral of Saint-Bénigne in Dijon sleeps one of the oldest crypts in Burgundy, the memory of a martyrdom going back to the first Christian centuries. Tradition relates that in 511, under the Merovingian king Clovis, Bishop Gregory of Langres had a crypt built to house the sarcophagus of Saint Bénigne (Benignus), a martyr venerated as one of the evangelisers of Roman Burgundy; a basilica was consecrated over this tomb as early as 535. Bishop Isaac of Langres founded a Benedictine abbey there in 871, but it was above all the reform undertaken from 990 by William of Volpiano, a monk come from Cluny, that transformed the site: the first stone of the new abbey church was laid in 1001, the church consecrated in 1016, and an extraordinary rotunda with three storeys of colonnades, completed in 1018, came to crown the east end — a masterpiece of the art of the year 1000, of which only the underground level survived the Revolution. Rebuilt in Burgundian Gothic in the 13th–14th centuries on the foundations of the old basilica, the church became a cathedral in 1792 during the reorganisation of the dioceses, then recovered its original height thanks to a 93-metre spire raised in 1885–1886 under the inspiration of Viollet-le-Duc. To descend into the crypt-rotunda, recently restored after four years of work, is to plunge physically into fifteen centuries of Burgundian devotion.

Getting there : Place Saint-Bénigne, historic centre of Dijon; free entry to the cathedral, admission charge for the crypt

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound