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We spent our entire day in Dijon, the former capital of Burgundy.  Our first visit was to the Musee Archeologique that is housed in a former Benedictine monastery.  The conversion from medieval monastery to museum is remarkable in that they left much of the original architecture intact so one is able to appreciate the progression of the early Romanesque undercroft to the 13th century Gothic lightness of the upper levels.  Just ignore all that 21st century museum lighting in the photos.                         

The next stop was at Dijon’s St Benigne Cathedral.  Since our focus is the Middle Ages, I did not photograph some of the more modern sculpture.  After the French Revolution (and all the damage done to too many churches), sculpture of Enlightenment intellectuals and writers was added to some churches, including this one.  In modern terms I suppose we would call this “rebranding” as the churches were now viewed as “temples of reason.”                         

 The Church of Notre Dame was next, a masterpiece of Gothic architecture.  Look closely at the outside view of the Rose Window  and you will notice small squares holes.  These were for the scaffolding used during construction.         

The last photo is Le Palais  des Ducs et des Etats de Bourgogne.  I didn’t even try to pronounce that one!  It is a former Dukes Palace turned into a museum of beautiful objects from 1384 – 1477.  Since this is late Middle Ages, you can see the influence of the Early Renaissance artists where images take on a more natural appearance.  During the Middle Ages, natural representation was never the point, so was not considered important.  Early Renaissance painters created images better representing what people looked like in the terrestrial world and this influenced sculptures.  You will see this in the beautiful faces of the altar piece and the alabaster monks represented in the last photo.

Audio Book

Section 1 - Musee Archeologique - Benedictine monastery

Section 2 - Dijon’s St Benigne Cathedral.

The Church of Notre Dame

Section 4 - Dukes Palace Museum