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The Dukes of Burgundy Route

Some of the monuments worth visiting on the route, which leads from the county of Yonne to that of Saône et Loire whilst passing through Côte d'Or, are of a later period than the Dukes, but they were all born of the region's prosperity which reached the peak of its power and prestige when the Dukes of Burgundy, Philip II the Bold (1363-1404), John the Fearless (1404-1419), Philip II the Good (1419-1467) and Charles the Reckless (1467-1477), governed.

The route starts in the county of Yonne, at the edge of the little town of Tanlay, a pleasant stopping place next to the Burgundy canal. The elegant castle instantly seduces the visitor. Built in the 16th and 17th centuries it belonged to the Admiral of Coligny during the wars of religion, and, so the story goes, it was in the round room on the top floor that the Huguenot plotters met. We then come across a superb and refined Renaissance residence, the castle of Ancy-le-Franc. Built in the 16th century for Antoine de Clermont, Count of Tonnerre, it was where the sumptuous banquets of Henry IV, Louis XIII and Louis XIV were held.

In Noyers-sur-Serein, one of the most beautiful villages in France, there is a medieval atmosphere with its streets lined with ancient wooden, stone or gabled houses sometimes flanked by a little exterior staircase. A few kilometres away, in the forest of Saint-Jean, the Vausse priory rises up. A Cistercian monastery, it was founded in the twelfth century. The Roman cloister is particularly well preserved.



The next step takes us to the Côte d'Or in search of one of many famous Burgundians, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Count of Buffon. Seven kilometres from the village named after him, the renowned naturalist had a large forge built in order to exploit commercially the discoveries he had made about iron and steel. The high furnace with its rather out-of-place ceremonial staircase is the most attractive part.

Of the Montbard castle, one of the residences of the Dukes of Burgundy, there remains only two towers and its ramparts. In its place there is a garden, known as the Buffon garden, laid out in terraces. It was, so they say, under this foliage, in his office, that Buffon wrote his natural history. One is reminded of the dukes by the Frolois castle, although the original tenth-century building built on a superb site has been modified over the course of the centuries.


In Epoisses, one meets with history once again. The castle flanked by twelfth century towers, reworked in the seventeenth century, guards memories of the Burgundy dukes, Henry IV, the Prince of Condé and Madame de Sévigné. The latter was also a habitué at the Bourbilly castle which was built several kilometres away. And for good reason, as in 1610, that large 14th century building became the property of Jeanne Frémyot de Cantal, the grandmother of the marchioness.
At Commarin in Pouilly-en-Aurois, the castle is a "palace of stone on a mirror of water", which was constructed in the 14th century. At Chateauneuf, a strong solid castle dominates the road between Dijon and Autun. The fortress was enlarged and reworked at the end of the 15th century by Philippe Pot, adviser to Philip the Good.

The Dukes of Burgundy route comes to an end in the region of Saône-et-Loire with two sites, the Couche castle and the Sully castle in Epinac. The first is a beautiful mixture of 12th and 13th century military architecture built by the powerful lords of the duchy of Burgundy. A large Gothic chapel was built in the 15th century by Claude de Montaigu, knight of the Golden Fleece and chamberlain to the duke, Philip the Good. The second, Sully castle, is a magnificent residence surrounded by a moat.

On the trail of the great dukes of the West

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