Burgundy
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Burgundy - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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1. Cathédrale St-Lazare
Autun's principal monument is the Cathédrale St-Lazare, a Romanesque cathedral in Gothic clothing. It was built between 1120 and 1146 to house the relics of St-Lazarus; the main tower, spire, and upper reaches of the chancel were added in the late 15th century. Lazarus's tricolor tomb was dismantled in 1766 by canons (vestiges of the exquisite workmanship can be seen in the neighboring Musée Rolin); and those same gentlemen did their best to transform the Romanesque-Gothic cathedral into a classical temple, adding pilasters and other ornaments willy-nilly. Fortunately, the lacy Flamboyant Gothic organ tribune and some of the best Romanesque stonework, including the inspired nave capitals and the tympanum above the main door, emerged unscathed. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's painting The Martyrdom of St. Symphorien has been relegated to the dingy north aisle of the nave, partly masked by the organ. The Last Judgment carved in stone above the main door was plastered over in the 18th century, which preserved not only the stylized Christ and elongated apostles but also the inscription "Gislebertus hoc fecit" (Gislebertus did this); Christ's head, which had disappeared, was found by a local canon shortly after World War II.
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2. Musée Rolin
Built by Chancellor Nicolas Rolin, an important Burgundian administrator and famous art patron (he's immortalized in one of the Louvre's greatest paintings, Jan van Eyck's Madonna and the Chancellor Rolin), this museum across from the cathedral is noteworthy for its early Flemish paintings and sculpture. Among them is the magisterial Nativity painted by the Maître de Moulins in the 15th century, but the collection's star is a Gislebertus masterpiece, the Temptation of Eve, which originally topped one of the side doors of the cathedral. Try to imagine the missing elements of the scene: Adam on the left and the devil on the right. It is worth watching the 12-minute film describing the cathedral's tympanum sculptures before visiting the cathedral. The museum is currently closed for renovations until 2025.
5 rue des Bancs, Autun, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, 71400, France03–85–52–21–60Sight Details
Rate Includes: €6, Closed Jan. and Tues. -
3. Théâtre Romain
The ancient theater, sitting at the edge of Autun on the road to Chalon-sur-Saône, makes an atmospheric picnic spot. Select lunch fixings in town, and then settle in on the stepped seats, where as many as 15,000 Gallo-Roman spectators perched two millennia ago. On Friday and Saturday nights in the height of summer, a themed performance—the only one of its kind—is put on by locals wearing period costumes. Elsewhere on the outskirts of town are the remains of a Roman Temple of Janus.
Autun, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, 71400, France -
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