Town · Burgundy–Franche-Comté · Altitude 220 m

Beaune

A walled wine town with the most famous roof in Burgundy, a medieval hospital for the poor, and the Côte’s great vineyards at the edge of town.

Why go

Paris drinks Burgundy; Beaune makes it. The town sits right at the foot of the Côte, where some of the most precious vineyards on earth begin a short walk beyond the ring road. Inside its ramparts you find a fifteenth-century hospital roofed in glazed tiles of red, green and gold, a Romanesque collegiate church and streets built over wine cellars. It is small, prosperous and walkable, and every road out of town leads into vines.

History

Beaune takes its name from Belena, a spring around which a Gaulish settlement grew, itself named after Belenos, a god of running water. A Roman fort followed in the first century AD, and by the Middle Ages the slopes around it were famous for their wine. In 1203 Duke Eudes III of Burgundy granted the town a charter of liberties modelled on that of Dijon.

The town’s great moment came in the fifteenth century, when Burgundy’s dukes ruled a state stretching to the Low Countries. Nicolas Rolin, chancellor to Duke Philip the Good, and his wife Guigone de Salins founded a hospital for the poor here: the founding act was signed on 4 August 1443 and the first patients arrived on 1 January 1452. Rolin commissioned the Last Judgement altarpiece from the Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden for its chapel.

When Charles the Bold died in 1477 and Louis XI seized the duchy, Beaune rose in support of Mary of Burgundy, before the king confirmed its privileges in 1478. He then strengthened the walls; the corner towers and bastions you see today are the result of works running into the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Over the centuries Burgundian families gave vineyards to the Hospices, which now own around sixty hectares on the Côte. Their wines have been auctioned each autumn since 1859, on the third Sunday of November, to fund the institution. The Hôtel-Dieu cared for patients for more than five centuries before becoming a museum, and in 2015 Beaune was inscribed by UNESCO as part of the Climats, terroirs of Burgundy.

UNESCO World Heritage: The Climats, terroirs of Burgundy (2015), which include the historic centre of Beaune

What to see

Hôtel-Dieu (Hospices de Beaune)

Step through a sober slate-roofed street front into a courtyard that explodes in colour: steep roofs of glazed tiles in geometric patterns, gabled dormers, galleries of carved wood. Inside, the great Hall of the Poor still has its curtained beds lined up beneath a painted timber vault, and Van der Weyden’s Last Judgement has its own room.

Collegiate church of Notre-Dame

Begun in the mid-twelfth century on the Cluny model, this is one of the last great Romanesque churches of Burgundy, finished in the early thirteenth century with remarkable unity of style. It is calm, cool and rarely crowded, a good counterweight to the queue at the Hôtel-Dieu.

The ramparts walk

A one-way boulevard follows the ring of walls that Louis XI’s men began after 1478: a first enclosure and citadel by 1502, the big round corner towers between 1513 and 1524, and bastions added in 1636. Walking the whole loop is the best way to grasp how compact the old town is.

Into the vineyards

Head out on foot or by bike into the vines on the slopes west of town and towards Pommard and Savigny. Small stone walls and signs mark the climats, the named plots whose differences UNESCO recognised. Go in late September or October to see the harvest and the leaves turning gold.

Beaune — Photo: Balise42, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Climate

Météo-France normals 1991-2020, station Savigny Les Bea (246 m, 3.4 km away). Sunshine: Dijon-Longvic station (32.8 km).

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
High °C	5.9	7.9	12.8	16.5	20.5	24.5	26.8	26.5	21.9	16.4	10.0	6.4
Low °C	0.3	0.6	3.6	6.4	10.4	13.8	15.6	15.3	11.7	8.1	3.7	1.0
Rain (mm)	59	49	52	57	69	62	67	56	55	76	80	69
Rain days	11	9	10	10	10	9	8	7	8	10	11	11
Sunshine (h)	61	95	160	194	216	240	257	240	191	118	66	53

When to go →

Timeline

1203 Duke Eudes III grants Beaune a charter of liberties
1443 Nicolas Rolin signs the founding act of the hospital (4 August)
1452 The Hôtel-Dieu receives its first patients (1 January)
1477 Beaune rises for Mary of Burgundy against Louis XI
1859 First auction of the Hospices de Beaune wines
2015 UNESCO inscription of the Climats, terroirs of Burgundy

Uncertain or disputed

Some sources date the founding of the Hospices to 1442; the founding act we follow is dated 4 August 1443.
Sources differ on when the Hôtel-Dieu stopped receiving patients: the 1960s in one account, 1971 in another.
The date when the famous glazed tiles were first laid is not known; the tiles on the roof today are replacements.

Crowds: Very busy in season. The Hôtel-Dieu is busiest from late morning on summer days and on the November weekend of the wine auction; go at opening time, and visit the vineyards on weekdays outside harvest week. (editorial judgement)

Protected food & drink from here

AOP and IGP products whose official area includes this commune (INAO). Regional food: AOP & IGP →

Cheese

Brillat-Savarin IGP · soft bloomy-rind cheese

Meat & charcuterie

Charolais de Bourgogne IGP · beef
Volailles de Bourgogne IGP · poultry

Butter, oil, honey & more

Moutarde de Bourgogne IGP · mustard

Cider & spirits

Cassis de Bourgogne IG · blackcurrant liqueur
Fine de Bourgogne IG · grape brandy
Marc de Bourgogne IG

Wine

Beaune AOP
Bourgogne AOP
Bourgogne Passe-tout-grains AOP
Bourgogne aligoté AOP
Bourgogne mousseux AOP
Coteaux Bourguignons ou Bourgogne grand ordinaire ou Bourgogne ordinaire AOP
Crémant de Bourgogne AOP
Côte de Beaune AOP

Festivals within 15 km

From the Ministry of Culture’s national list; it gives a season, not dates.

Festival	Discipline	Season
Beaune Blues Boogie festival Beaune	Music	6 Sep – 31 Dec
Ciné-rétro en ciné-concerts Beaune	Film	21 Jun – 5 Sep
De Bach à Bacchus Meursault	Music	21 Jun – 5 Sep
Demigny On The Rock Demigny	Music	1 Jan – 20 Jun
Festival de la karriere Villars-Fontaine	Theatre, dance & street arts	21 Jun – 5 Sep
Festival international d'opéra baroque & romantique de Beaune Beaune	Music	21 Jun – 5 Sep
Festival International du Film Policier de Beaune Beaune	Film	1 Jan – 20 Jun
Festival musical des frands crus de Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Meursault	Music	21 Jun – 5 Sep
Les festives de Meloisey Meloisey	Mixed	21 Jun – 5 Sep
Rootstock festival à Pommard Pommard	Music	21 Jun – 5 Sep
Street Art on the Rock Villars-Fontaine	Theatre, dance & street arts	21 Jun – 5 Sep

Also in this part of France

2h38 Village · Burgundy–Franche-Comté Arbois Pasteur’s home town, capital of Jura wine: vin jaune, a river running under houses, and a limestone gorge just beyond the last street.

2h17 Village · Burgundy–Franche-Comté Vézelay One street climbing a Burgundian hill to a Romanesque basilica where, on the summer solstice, sunlight lays a path of light down the nave.

2h39 Town · Grand Est Langres A walled hilltop town near the source of the Marne: Diderot’s birthplace, with 3.6 km of ramparts to walk all the way round.

2h44 Village · Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Pérouges A walled weavers’ town on a hilltop near Lyon, cobbled end to end, with a liberty tree in the square and sugar galette in every oven.

Sources

Original text. Train times computed from SNCF timetables (ODbL); climate Météo-France; products INAO; festivals Ministry of Culture. Methodology.