Dijon Cathedral, or the Cathedral of Saint Benignus of Dijon (french: Cathédrale Saint-Bénigne de Dijon), is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

located in the town of

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlie ...

Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, and dedicated to

Saint Benignus of Dijon In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...

. The

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

cathedral building, constructed between 1280 and 1325, and dedicated on 9 April 1393, is a listed national monument. Originating as the church of the Abbey of St. Benignus, it became the seat of the Diocese of Dijon during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

, replacing the previous cathedral when it was secularised, and has been the seat of the succeeding Archbishopric of Dijon since the elevation of the diocese in 2002.

History

The first church here was a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its nam ...

built over the supposed

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Gre ...

of Saint Benignus, which was placed in a crypt constructed for it by Saint Gregory of

Langres Langres () is a commune in northeastern France. It is a subprefecture of the department of Haute-Marne, in the region of Grand Est. History As the capital of the Romanized Gallic tribe known as the Lingones, it was called Andematunnum, th ...

in 511; the basilica over the crypt was completed in 535. From the early 9th century St .Bénigne was the personal monastery of the bishops of Langres. In 869 Isaac, Bishop of Langres, re-founded it as a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

abbey, and restored the basilica at the same time. In 989 Bruno, Bishop of Langres, requested Mayeul, Abbot of Cluny, to send monks to re-settle the abbey, grown decadent, as a

Cluniac The Cluniac Reforms (also called the Benedictine Reform) were a series of changes within medieval monasticism of the Western Church focused on restoring the traditional monastic life, encouraging art, and caring for the poor. The movement began ...

house. In 990 William of Volpiano was appointed the new abbot. By 1002, the ruin of the previous building had been razed and construction began on a new Romanesque structure designed by William, consisting of a subterranean church round the sarcophagus of Benignus, a ground floor church for worship, and a rotunda,"Dijon Cathedral", Religiana
/ref> 17 metres in diameter, on three levels in the place of the apse, linking the two. Dedicated in October 1016 by Lambert I,Geary, Patrick J., ''Phantoms of Remembrance: Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium''. Princeton University Press. (1994). p. 4 this suite of buildings was decorated in the ornate Cluniac style, of which only a few traces survive. F08

In 1137 a fire destroyed most of the town of Dijon and damaged the monastery and its church. The repaired building was consecrated by Pope Eugene III in 1147. In 1272 the crossing tower collapsed, destroying the whole of the upper church and severely damaging the subterranean one, and smashing some of the supporting columns of the rotunda. Then the abbot, Hugh of Arc, of a powerful Burgundian family, was able, thanks to his contacts, to mobilise enough support to begin the construction of a new

abbey church in 1281. Progress was at first rapid, and at Hugh's death in 1300 the building was close to completion. Progress slowed, however, and the work was not finished until 1325. The new church, unlike its Cluniac predecessor, is noted for its plainness and severity. The abbey was secularised during the

, but the church was made, firstly, a parish church, and then in 1792 the cathedral of the Diocese of Dijon. The rotunda was however destroyed at that time; all that remains is the lowest storey, which was excavated in the 19th century and has since been reworked as a crypt. Dijon - cathédrale - choeur

Burials

Philip the Good Philip III (french: Philippe le Bon; nl, Filips de Goede; 31 July 1396 – 15 June 1467) was Duke of Burgundy from 1419 until his death. He was a member of a cadet line of the Valois dynasty, to which all 15th-century kings of France belonge ...

Notes

References

Studies

Sources

*
Catholic Hierarchy: Diocese and Archdiocese of Dijon

Diocese of Dijon official website

External links

* High-resolution 360° Panoramas and Images o
Dijon Cathedral , Art Atlas
{{Authority control Roman Catholic cathedrals in France Buildings and structures in Dijon Churches in Côte-d'Or Churches completed in 1325 Monuments historiques of Côte-d'Or Tourist attractions in Dijon 14th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in France