Beaune is a French commune located in the department of Côte-d'Or
and the Burgundy region. Located 45 kilometers south of Dijon and
150 km north of Lyon, it is the sub-prefecture of the district of
Beaune. Its inhabitants are called the Beaunois.
In 2007, the
population of intramural Beaune was 22,012 inhabitants, which makes
it the 2nd commune of Côte-d'Or. The Beaune agglomeration community
known as “Beaune, Côte et Sud” has a little over 50,000 inhabitants.
It is also the 8th city of Burgundy, behind the capital and
regional capital of Dijon, Chalon-sur-Saône, Nevers, Auxerre, Mâcon,
Sens (Yonne), Le Creusot and in front of Montceau-les-Mines.
Heir to a rich historical and architectural heritage, seat of many
trading houses, Beaune can be considered the capital of Burgundy
wines.
It is a Ville fleurie awarded four flowers and the
National Grand Prix distinction. Gold medal at the European Entente
Florale competition in 2006.
tourist Office
Tourist Office
"Beaune & Pays Beaunois" 6, Bd Perpreuil, Logo indicating a
telephone number +33 3 80 26 21 30, email:
contacts@beaune-tourisme.fr
The franchise charter of the municipality of Beaune gives its inhabitants rights and privileges. Eudes III, Duke of Burgundy, allows Beaune to exist as an autonomous institution from 1203 on the model of Dijon. This charter is kept in the Municipal Archives of Beaune.
In 1422, Nicolas Rolin became the chancellor of the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good. He was closely linked to John the Fearless, who was the godfather of his third son. Widowed, he married in 1421, Guigone of Salins from the Comtois nobility, with whom he founded the Hospices of Beaune, in 1443, where he created in 1452 a new religious order: the sisters hospitallers of Beaune. It was he who commissioned the polyptych of the Last Judgment from the Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden, for the hospices.
The States of Burgundy recognize Louis XI as sovereign on January 29, 1477, on the death of Charles the Bold. With the occupation of Burgundy by the royal army led by John IV of Chalon, Georges de la Trémoille and Charles d'Amboise, Beaune rallied to Mary of Burgundy, against the King of France Louis XI. The revolts of Beaune as well as Semur-en-Auxois and Châtillon-sur-Seine were quickly put down. However, the king finally confirmed the privileges of the city by his letters patent in October 1478.
The return of Burgundy to the France of Louis XI entailed the fortification campaign which gave the city its current appearance. A first phase of construction, which took place between 1478 and 1502, established the citadel and a first enclosure. From 1513 to 1524 the "big towers" were built at the corners of the city and the enclosure was thickened. A final phase in 1636 modernizes the fortifications by adding bastions to the less defended sides.
Henry II accompanied by his wife Catherine de Medici travels through
his kingdom and makes a sumptuous entrance to Beaune on July 18, 1548.
The mayor was Girard Legoux28.
Charles IX accompanied by his mother
Catherine de Medici, coming from Dijon, enters the city on May 30, 1564
during his royal tour of France (1564-1566) accompanied by the Court and
the Grandees of the kingdom: his brother the Duke of Anjou, Henry of
Navarre, the cardinals of Bourbon and Lorraine: they receive a triumphal
welcome.
In 1568, Wolfgang of Bavaria, financed by Elizabeth I of
England, takes the lead of an expeditionary army of 14,000 mercenaries
to bring reinforcements to the French Protestants besieged in La
Rochelle. In his crossing of Burgundy, his troops composed of reîtres,
heavy cavalry equipped with pistols, ravaged the Franche-Comté and
stayed two days in front of the walls of Beaune and destroyed the
Carthusians there, before continuing their road.
On April 15, 1575,
François de Lespine was executed in Dijon and his severed head was
planted on a spike, above the town hall of Beaune, on the 18th. He was
convicted of plotting to deliver Dijon and the castle of Beaune to the
Huguenots.
Heavy rains fell in the summer of 1708 and adversely affected the
annual harvest, and on January 2, 1709 when the rain began to fall,
immediately followed by an icy wind: an exceptional winter began. The
wind that blows until January 25, without the snow having come to
protect the crops, destroys the crops and the fruit trees, alters the
vines and freezes the waterways. The Bouzaise is frozen in two hours.
Even the wine turns into ice in bottles and barrels. Birds and poultry
do not survive this polar cold. To save the wanderers, travelers and the
needy, public fires are lit. After a short period of respite accompanied
by rain, the snow falls from the beginning of February, and when it
melts the rivers overflow and flood the countryside. The sun appears in
April, bringing life back to the fields, and bringing warmth to the
inhabitants, but a freezing rain destroys the seeds down to the roots.
The consequences of this Great Winter are disastrous for the
population. The inhabitants expect a great famine, which creates a
general feeling of panic. We fear the hoarders, we oppose the free
movement of wheat. To calm tensions, the city council decides to block
all wheat supplies and to identify them in order to better manage and
distribute them. But riots take place in Pommard where the inhabitants
oppose the requisition of their stock, while Beaune is building up a
reserve, while the wheat harvests and the harvest are almost
non-existent in 1709.
Beaune, sub-prefecture of the Côte-d'Or in
1790
The Côte-d'Or department was created on March 4, 1790 by the
Constituent Assembly from the former province of Burgundy.
In February 1814, 6,000 men were in Beaune under the orders of Baron
de Scheither, who led operations in the South-east of France, to take
Chalon-sur-Saône from Napoleon's troops, during the French campaign of
1814, where Napoleon was trying to prevent the invasion of France by the
Sixth Coalition.
Creation of the Practical School of Agriculture
and Viticulture, "La Viti" in 1884
In 1881, the Beaune Hospices
commission set up a project to transform its horticultural school into a
viticulture school.
The project supported by the municipality and
the department was founded in 1884 as the Practical School of
Agriculture and Viticulture of Beaune. It is the deputy Sadi Carnot who
intervenes with the minister of agriculture, in March 1884, to make this
project a national priority and the decree of creation appears on
October 25. The school is intended to train crop managers and
professional instruction to the sons of winegrowers. The entrance to the
school is then by competition, and welcomes 30 students in the first
year, for a three-year cycle of studies. In 1962, with the
transformation of agricultural education, "la Viti" became an
agricultural high school: the Wine School of Beaune.
During the First World War, Beaune became one of the rear bases of the American Expeditionary Force (A.E.F.) and its 2 million men in France. In 1918, the American military hospital was built at the gates of the city, with 20,000 beds it will be one of the largest in Europe.
The hospital will be transformed after the Armistice into an American University, by the A.E.F. to train soldiers who cannot immediately return to the United States, in the occupying forces of Germany. The A.E.F. University of Beaune opens from February to June 1919 with 15,000 American student soldiers who undergo training there and its faculty of 600 teachers and staff. The A.E.F. University of Beaune had an agricultural college with 2,500 students on a 13-hectare farm in Allerey, and a branch of 1,000 students, in an art and architecture college located at the Bellevue Castle near Versailles. Nearly 30,000 works were collected in his library and will then be donated to the municipal library of Beaune. The university was directed by John Erskine, professor of English at Columbia University in New York, who was in charge of the organization of this military university with Colonel Ira Reeves.
The Germans arrive on June 17, 1940 in Beaune. Seduced by the
agrarian themes of the National Revolution, Mayor Roger Duchet quickly
displayed his enthusiasm by renaming the avenue de la Gare in 1940 as
"avenue du Maréchal Pétain", one of the grievances that will be
reproached to him by the Departmental Liberation Committee. Also
president of the hospices of Beaune, he is actively working to donate
the Cuvée des Dames hospitalières renamed "Clos du Maréchal Pétain" to
the French Head of State.
On liberation, the mayor is removed
from the city council according to the instructions given by the
departmental Liberation Committee, but convened in December by the CDL's
purification committee, he escapes any sanction and is re-elected the
following year.
At the end of the Second World War, the city is joined by the 2nd
cuirassier regiment of Colonel Durosoy, who came by Chalon-sur-Saône and
Bligny-lès-Beaune. The French forces arrived on September 7 and
encountered machine guns to the west and especially strong anti-tank
defenses to the south of the city which caused human and material losses
to the 3rd Squadron. An M4 Sherman tank, known as the Orleans II tank
and belonging to the 3rd squadron of the 2nd RC, is destroyed in the
vicinity of the city, and others are damaged. The French, at the gates
of Beaune, retreated for the night during which the Germans fled the
city towards Dijon.
The French forces could not enter the city
until the next day to liberate it, on September 8, 1944, where they were
acclaimed. A local odonym (avenue du Huit-Septembre-1944) recalls this
event.
The troops entering Beaune came partly from the 1st army
commanded by General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, and also from the
troops of the :
1st Platoon of the 3rd Squadron of the 2nd
Cuirassiers ;
tank-Destroyer platoon (tank destroyer) ;
tanks from
the Command Post ;
artillery group ;
French forces from the
interior of the Henry Meyer group ;
French forces of the interior
Douaumont ;
Valmy Maquis
Combat Command 1.
Beaune is the sub-prefecture of the arrondissement of Beaune, one of
the three arrondissements of the Côte-d'Or. The town is located on the
Burgundy wine coast also called the Route des Grands Crus (which extends
from Dijon to Beaune for its Côte-d'orienne part).
Beaune is
bordered to the south by the Bouzaise river, which originates in the
agglomeration. On the western flank of the town is the coast of
vineyards which gives its name to the department. It is located 45
kilometers south-southwest of Dijon, and 150 north of Lyon.
Beaune is located on the slope separating, to the west, the Jurassic limestone plateau (Hautes-Côtes), and to the east, the Saône plain. The soils of the vineyard are clay-limestone, but with differences on the limestone. Layers of Rauracian limestone on the tops of the vineyard. In the middle of the Comblanchian limestone layers with Argovian marls on thick, white, gray or yellow soils, shaded in red by the ferruginous Oxfordian. Its exposure goes from the east to full south, at an altitude of 193 to 407 meters.
The Bouzaise River has its source in the east of the city. Bypassing
the old town from the south, it alternates underground sections and
open-air passages. About twenty kilometers long, it flows into the
Dheune at the height of Palleau.
Beaune also has two streams, the
Aigue and the Genet, which both flow into the Bouzaise.
In 2010, the climate of the municipality is of the degraded oceanic
climate type of the Central and Northern plains, according to a study by
the National Center for Scientific Research based on a series of data
covering the period 1971-2000. In 2020, Météo-France publishes a
typology of the climates of metropolitan France in which the
municipality is in a transition zone between the altered oceanic climate
and the altered oceanic climate and is in the Burgundy climatic region,
Saône Valley, characterized by good sunshine (1,900 h / year), a hot
summer (18.5 ° C), dry air in spring and summer and weak winds.
For the period 1971-2000, the average annual temperature is 11.1 ° C,
with an annual thermal amplitude of 18.1 ° C. The average annual
cumulative rainfall is 791 mm, with 10.9 days of precipitation in
January and 7.1 days in July. For the period 1991-2020, the annual
average temperature observed on the nearest Météo-France meteorological
station, "Savigny Les Bea", in the town of Savigny-lès-Beaune 5 km as
the crow flies, is 11.9 ° C and the average annual cumulative rainfall
is 752.9 mm. For the future, the climate parameters of the municipality
estimated for 2050 according to different greenhouse gas emission
scenarios can be consulted on a dedicated website published by
Météo-France in November 2022.
Beaune is an urban commune. It is indeed part of the dense
municipalities or of intermediate density, within the meaning of the
communal grid of density of the Insee. It belongs to the urban unit of
Beaune, a monocommunal urban unit with 21,031 inhabitants in 2017,
constituting an isolated town.
In addition, the town is part of
the Beaune attraction area, of which it is the town-center. This area,
which includes 64 municipalities, is categorized into areas of 50,000 to
less than 200,000 inhabitants.
The land use of the municipality, as it appears from the European database of biophysical soil occupation Corine Land Cover (CLC), is marked by the importance of agricultural territories (46.9% in 2018), nevertheless decreasing compared to 1990 (50.9%). The detailed distribution in 2018 is as follows: urbanized areas (27.6%), arable land (22.9%), permanent crops (18.6%), forests (12.5%), industrial or commercial areas and communication networks (8.2%), heterogeneous agricultural areas (4.1%), environments with shrubby and/or herbaceous vegetation (4%), meadows (1.3%), artificial green spaces, non-agricultural (0.6%). The evolution of the land use of the municipality and its infrastructures can be observed on the various cartographic representations of the territory: the Cassini map (eighteenth century), the staff map (1820-1866) and the maps or aerial photos of the IGN for the current period (1950 to today).
The total number of dwellings in 2017 is 12,041. They are divided
into main residences for 87.0%, secondary residences (including
occasional housing) for 4.9%, and vacant housing for 8.1%.
The
share of households that own their main residence is 44.4%.
In
Beaune, 24% of housing units are classified as social housing in 2018.
In particular, there are many of them in Saint-Jacques, a priority
district until 2024.
Housing problems appear in the city center
because of Airbnb, apartment owners prefer to make a profit with the
platform, rather than renting their property to residents all year
round. Cleanliness (sorting in garbage cans) and parking occupied by
Airbnb tourists are also negative consequences of these practices.
The one-way circular boulevard that delimits the historic city center, along the ramparts, has been largely renovated, reducing traffic in several places to two lanes instead of three. Instead, green spaces and cycle or pedestrian paths have been integrated. The work began in 2006 with a projected budget of € 2,362,500.
A 580 hectare vineyard presents red wines made from Pinot noir. An exceptional estate including 320 hectares in 1er cru (the largest area in 1er cru on the whole coast). Firm, frank, colorful, full of fire and bouquet, mellow, such are the wines of Beaune. The Duke of Clarence condemned to death by his brother the King of England exclaimed: "I want to be drowned in a barrel of Beaune wine so that my death will be effortless and good". What better promotion ...
Beaune loves Music, ancient, modern, classical…… always eclectic.
In July, the International Baroque Opera Festival opens the
ball. By its notoriety and its audience, this event is one of the
most prestigious festivals in Europe. Every year since 1983, the
meetings have perpetuated the musical tradition of the court of the
Dukes of Burgundy considered one of the most brilliant and sumptuous
of the fifteenth century.
In September, it's the Jazz harvest
with Jazz à Beaune and Grands Vins de Bourgogne. New talents and
great international, American and European artists perform in the
intimate atmosphere of the Beaune theater. The formula that made the
festival known and won over festival-goers: tastings of Burgundy
wines before each concert, and a program that will combine swing,
blues, harmonies and improvisations.
Just before Christmas,
the Beaune Blues Boogie Festival brings together the best blues and
boogie woogie pianists and musicians from France, Germany, USA,
Guadeloupe who perform as solo piano, piano duo and orchestra.
This exclusive formula inspired by the famous Parisian festival
“Les Nuits jazz & Boogie piano” owes everything to its creator, Jean
Pierre Bertrand, an outstanding pianist, won over by the terroir and
the conviviality of Beaune and its vineyards.
Beaune and the cinema: a beautiful story that began more than a century ago, even before the official birth of the cinematograph, thanks to the invention of Etienne-Jules Marey's chrono-photographic rifle.
Since then, Beaune has taken up the challenge of a city-studio,
by offering a formidable natural backdrop to the greatest directors,
of La Grande Vadrouille, an anthology film shot in the heart of
Burgundy's most famous monument, the Hospices, to the recent success
of Claude Lelouch, Roman de Gare.
This long link between
Beaune and the cinema continues its path and is embodied today with
strength and originality, with the creation of a Cinema School and
the opening of the Maison du Mouvement, after the arrival of a
complex. state-of-the-art cinematography.