Dijon - Cathédrale Saint-Bénigne

The Cathédrale Saint-Bénigne was the church of the Abbey of St. Benignus. The church, erected in Gothic style 1280-1325, became the seat of the Bishopric of Dijon after the French Revolution.

The first church here was a basilica built over the grave of Saint Benignus, who in the third century had come to Gaul from Smyrna as a missionary. He worked successfully in Burgundy - and got martyred. His sarcophagus was placed in a crypt, built by Saint Gregory of Langres in 511, a basilica over that crypt was completed in 535.

In 990 Saint Mayeul, Abbot of Cluny, appointed William of Volpiano the new abbot here. William immidiatly started withe the construction of a new Romanesque church, that - instead of an apse - had a rotunda, 17 metres in diameter.

In 1137 a fire destroyed most of the town and damaged the monastery and its church. The repaired building was consecrated by Pope Eugene III in 1147.

In 1272 the crossing tower collapsed, destroying the whole of the upper church and severely damaging the subterranean one, and smashing some of the supporting columns of the rotunda. In 1280 the construction of a new Gothic abbey church started. This is the church seen today. What was left of the rotunda was destroyed after the Revolution.

What remains is the lowest storey, which was excavated in the 19th century and has since been reworked as a crypt, seen here.