Beaune Tourist Attractions

Beaune's main sight is the famous Hôtel-Dieu, a hospital for the poor built by Chancellor Nicolas Rolin and his wife in the mid 15th C. This is a typical example of Flemish Gothic (architect Jacques Wiscrère), a long half-timbered building with a colorful roof of glazed tiles laid in geometric patterns and a picturesque courtyard surrounded by two tiers of galleries. In the courtyard, in front of the main hospital ward (which remained in use until 1971), is a wrought-iron well-head.The Hôtel-Dieu now houses a museum, notable particularly for a large polyptych of the Last Judgment by Rogier van der Weyden (between 1442 and 1450) and a number of tapestries. Visitors can also see the old hospital ward, the chapel, the kitchen and the pharmacy, still with their medieval furnishings.

In Beaune, north of the Hôtel-Dieu is the Romanesque church of Notre-Dame, a three-aisled basilica in Cluniac style with transepts, a choir ending in a semicircular apse and a square tower over the crossing. As a result of later extensions the exterior of the church is largely Gothic. The interior (modeled on Autun) has fine 15th C stained glass, medieval frescoes and 15th C tapestries.

Visitors to Beaune will want to see the Museum in the old Hôtel des Ducs de Bourgogne, the town house of the Dukes of Burgundy which later passed into the hands of the French kings.The Musée des Beaux-Arts, housed in part of the 18th century Town Hall (originally an Ursuline convent), displays archeological finds from the surrounding area, French and Flemish paintings of the 17th-19th centuries and the apparatus used by a scientist named Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904), a native of Beaune who invented "chronophotography", a predecessor of the cinematograph. Beaune has a number of 16th C houses, particularly in Rue de Lorraine, which are now owned by the municipality.

The Archéodrome, situated near the motorway junction on the east side of Beaune, is an open-air museum illustrating the development of human settlement in Burgundy from the time when men first began to make tools until the end of the Roman period.The Archéodrome closed in October 31, 2005.

Parked on the grounds of Chateau de Savigny, this unique museum houses many modern-day jet aircraft. Of particular note in this collection is the Mirage IIIR, a number of Thunderstreaks and a pair of Starfighters.