Dijon, France Tourism

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Dijon (Dibio) was a fortified post on the road from Lyons to Mainz. After many centuries of vicissitudes it became part of the duchy of Burgundy in the 11th century and was soon raised to the status of its capital. In the 14th and 15th centuries, under Dukes Philip the Bold (1364-1404), John the Fearless (1404- 1419), Philip the Good (1419-1467) and Charles the Bold (1467-1477), Dijon enjoyed a first cultural growth.

At the end of the 18th century the English traveller Arthur Young wrote: "Dijon, on the whole, is a handsome town; the streets, though old built, are wide and very well paved, with the addition, uncommon in France, of trottoirs." At that time Dijon had no more than 20,000 inhabitants. It was only in the mid 19th century, with the increase in trade and traffic, that it began to develop into the large city that we see today.