The church of Notre-Dame (1230–51), designed in the style of Saint-Bénigne, is a fine
example of early 13th-century Burgundian Gothic. It has a long nave (215 feet) flanked
by aisles and crossed by a transept and a choir without an ambulatory or radiating
chapels. Typical of the style, the building is covered with six-part vaulting, and the
graceful colonnettes of the triforium are ornamented with human faces. The west front
has a deep triple porch, above which are two arcaded galleries separated by three broad
friezes, each richly decorated with human and animal grotesques. The church displays the
Jacquemart bell, which was carried off from Courtrai in 1382 by Philip the Bold.
Built before 1103 over the tombs of two 6th-century saints, the church of Saint-
Philibert was rebuilt and restored after the 1137 fire. The 12th-century groin-vaulted
basilica has a five-bay nave with aisles and a choir and is crossed by a transept. The
façade is pierced by a late 12th-century Gothic rose window, and the porch dates from the
same period. Above the crossing are a cupola and a 15th-century Flamboyant bell tower.
In spite of these later additions, the building is fundamentally a Romanesque structure.
Saint-Philibert is particularly associated with the municipal life of Dijon. Under its porch,
the vicomte mayeur and the magistrates of Dijon were elected.
Philip the Bold established a Carthusian monastery, the Chartreuse de Champmol, in
1383 to ensure a proper burial for himself and his successors. All that remains of the once
lavishly decorated building (torn down in 1793) is the entrance portal with its sculptural
group by Claus Sluter (1395–1404). Here, Philip the Bold and his wife, Marguerite of
Flanders, presented by their patron saints, John the Baptist and Catherine, kneel in
attendance to the Virgin and Child. The fact that all of the figures here are on the same
scale visually creates a link between the temporal realm of the ducal couple and the world
of the divine. The tombs and altarpieces once inside the building are now housed in the
museum at Dijon. In the adjacent courtyard stands the Well of Moses, also by Sluter.
Originally the base of a Cavalry, a hexagonal pedestal rising from the well is surrounded
by statues of Moses, David, Jeremiah, Zachariah, Daniel, and Isaiah.
Nina Rowe
[See also: BURGUNDY; SLUTER, CLAUS; WILLIAM OF VOLPIANO]
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Röhrscheid, 1973.
Chaume, Maurice. Les origines du duché de Bourgogne. 4 vols. Dijon: Jobard, 1925–31.
Chompton, Louis. Histoire de l’église Saint-Bénigne de Dijon. Dijon: Jobard, 1900.
Flipo, Vincent. La cathédrale de Dijon. Paris: Laurens, 1928.
Oursel, Charles. L’église Notre-Dame de Dijon. Paris: Laurens, 1938.
Poinssot, Claude. “Le bâtiment de dortoir de l’abbaye de Saint-Bénigne de Dijon.” Bulletin
monumental 112(1954): 303–30.
Quarré, Pierre. La chartreuse de Champmol: foyer d’art au temps des ducs valois. Dijon: Musée de
Dijon, 1960.
——. Dijon. Paris: Hachette, 1961.
Richard, Jean. Les ducs de Bourgogne et la formation du duché du XIe au XIVe siècle. Paris:
Société des Belles Lettres, 1954.
Vallery-Radot, Jean, Marcel Aubert, et al. “Dijon.” Congrès archéologique (Dijon) 91(1928):9–
147.
Vaughan, Richard. Valois Burgundy. London: Archon, 1975.
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