Located in the territory of Beaune, in Côte-d'Or, Notre-Dame Collegiate Church is a Cluniac-inspired basilica that is famous in this Burgundy city. It is in the twelfth century that the Dukes of Burgundy who hold parliament in the city decide to build this religious building dedicated to the Virgin. Today classified as an historic monument, it is one of the last Romanesque churches in the Burgundy region.
Inspired by the Cluniac model, it did not finish until the beginning of the 13th century. Over the centuries, it has been embellished with new chapels like that of Saint-Léger with its murals or button of the first half of the sixteenth century. At the end of the sixteenth century, its Gothic spire was replaced by an imperial roof, and it was largely restored in the nineteenth on the orders of Viollet-le-Duc.
Long served by a college of secular canons living in community in houses still visible today, the collegiate church of Notre-Dame has since its construction a high place of pilgrimage, especially thanks to its black polychrome Virgin carved in a fruit wood that s is clouded over time. Inside, we discover with pleasure the beauty of its architecture, including the capitals of the right pillars of the nave retracing the history of the ark of Noah or the stoning of Saint Stephen, or the tapestries of life of the Virgin woven in silk and wool on 19 paintings in the choir.
From June to September, at Christmas and during major events, the exterior facade is illuminated with projections of light that trace the entire history of its construction.
