Burgundy

For the reddish color, see Burgundy (color). For other uses, see Burgundy (disambiguation) or Bourgogne (disambiguation).

Template:Infobox French region Burgundy (/ˈbɜːrɡəndi/; Template:Lang-fr [buʁɡɔɲ] ) is a historical territory and a former administrative region of France. It takes its name from the Burgundians, an East Germanic people who moved westwards beyond the Rhine during the late Roman period. Historically, "Burgundy" has referred to numerous political entities, including kingdoms and duchies spanning territory from the Mediterranean to the Low Countries. Since January 2016, the name Burgundy has referred to a specific part of the French administrative region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, an entity comprising four departments: Côte-d'Or, Saône-et-Loire, Yonne, and Nièvre.

History

The Vix Krater, a Greek wine-mixing vessel found in the Vix Grave

Coat of arms of the second Duchy of Burgundythen and later of the province

Main article: History of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté

The first recorded inhabitants of the area that became Burgundy were Celts who eventually migrated to the British Isles of Britannia after the Roman period there, who were eventually also incorporated in the Roman Empire province of Gaul as Gallo-Romans.

During the 4th century, the Burgundians, a Germanic people, who may have originated in northeast Europe around Bornholm (on the Baltic Sea), then settled in the western Alps mountains. They founded the Kingdom of the Burgundians, which was conquered in the 6th century after the fall of the Western Roman Empire by another Germanic tribe, the Franks who settled in Gaul (future France).

Map of France showing Burgundy and provincial boundaries in 1789

Under Frankish dominion, the Kingdom of Burgundy continued for several centuries.

Later, the region was divided between the Duchy of Burgundy (to the west) and the Free County of Burgundy (to the east). The Duchy of Burgundy is the better-known of the two, later becoming the French province of Burgundy, while the County of Burgundy in the east became the French province of Franche-Comté, literally meaning free county.

Burgundy's modern existence is rooted in the dissolution of the Frankish Empire following the uniting period of the Emperor of the Franks, Charlemagne [Charles the Great] (742-814, reigned 768-814) who proclaimed and was crowned as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (then including modern France, western Germany and northern Italy). As the empire unfortuately was split into thirds among his sons, by the 880s, there were four Burgundies, which were the Kingdom of Upper and Lower Burgundy, and the earlier duchy and the county.

During the high Middle Ages, Burgundy was home to some of the most important Western Roman Catholic churches and monasteries, including those of abbies in Cluny, Cîteaux, and Vézelay. Cluny, founded in 910, exerted a strong influence in Europe for centuries. The first Cistercian order abbey was founded in 1098 in Cîteaux. Over the next century, hundreds of Cistercian abbeys were founded throughout Europe, in a large part due to the charisma and influence of Bernard of Clairvaux. The Abbey of Fontenay, (a modern UNESCO World Heritage site)), is today the best-preserved Cistercian abbey in Burgundy. The Abbey of Vezelay, (also a UNESCO site), is still a starting point for pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela. Cluny was almost totally destroyed during the French Revolution (1789-1793), with its anti-religious fervor.

During the earlier Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), King John II of France (1319-1364, reigned 1350-1364) gave the duchy to his youngest son, Philip the Bold. The duchy soon became a major powwrful rival to the crown. The court in Dijon outshone the French court in Paris both economically and culturally. In 1477, at the Battle of Nancy during the Burgundian Wars, the last duke Charles the Bold was killed in battle, and the Duchy itself was finally annexed by the Kingdom of France and became a province. However the northern part of the duchy was taken by the Austrian ruling dynasty Habsburgs.

With the French Revolution in the end of the 18th century and subsequent Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815), under the first Empire with great radical changes in the structure of the country, beginning with First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, then Emperor Napoleon I, the administrative units of the provinces disappeared, replaced by newer, smaller, more compact departments, but were later reconstituted as regions during the Fifth Republic since 1958 of modern France in the 1970s. The modern-day administrative region comprises most of the former historical duchy and cultural region.

Geography

Map of Burgundy

Arboretum de Pézanin

The region of Burgundy is both larger than the old Duchy of Burgundy and smaller than the area ruled by the Dukes of Burgundy, from the modern Netherlands to the border of Auvergne. Today, Burgundy is made up of the old provinces:

• Burgundy: Côte-d'Or, Saône-et-Loire, and southern half of Yonne. This corresponds to the old duchy of Burgundy (later called province of Burgundy). However, the old county of Burgundy (later called province of Franche-Comté) is not included inside the Burgundy region, but it makes up the Franche-Comté region. Also, a small part of the duchy of Burgundy (province of Burgundy) is now inside the Champagne-Ardenne region.
• Nivernais: now the department of Nièvre.
• the northern half of Yonne is a territory that was not part of Burgundy (at least not since the 11th century), and was a frontier between Champagne, Île-de-France, and Orléanais, being part of each of these provinces at different times in history.

Major communities

Dijon, Place du Bareuzai

Le Creusot

• Autun
• Auxerre
• Beaune
• Chalon-sur-Saône
• Dijon
• Le Creusot
• Mâcon
• Montceau-les-Mines
• Nevers
• Prémery
• Sens

Climate

The climate of this region is essentially oceanic (Cfb in Köppen classification), with a continental influence (sometimes called a "half-continental climate").

Politics

Seat of the regional council of Burgundy in Dijon

The regional council of Burgundy was the legislative assembly of the region, located in the capital city Dijon at 17 boulevard de la Trémouille until its merger to form the regional council of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

Culture and livelihoods

Chardonnay vineyards in the south of the Côte de Beaune surrounding the town of Meursault.

See also: Burgundy wine

Burgundy is one of France's main wine producing areas. It is well known for both its red and white wines, mostly made from Pinot noir and Chardonnay grapes, respectively, although other grape varieties can be found, including Gamay, Aligote, Pinot blanc, and Sauvignon blanc. The region is divided into the Côte-d'Or, where the most expensive and prized Burgundies are found, and Beaujolais, Chablis, the Côte Chalonnaise and Mâcon. The reputation and quality of the top wines, together with the fact that they are often produced in small quantities, has led to high demand and high prices, with some Burgundies ranking among the most expensive wines in the world.

With regard to cuisine, the region is famous for the Burgundian dishes coq au vin, beef bourguignon, and époisses de Bourgogne cheese.

Tourist sites of Burgundy include the Rock of Solutré, the Tournus cathedral, Cluny, Brancion, the castles of Cormatin and Couches, the palace of the dukes of Burgundy in Dijon, the Pézanin Arboretum (in Dompierre-les-Ormes), and Vézelay Abbey.

Earlier, the southeastern part of Burgundy was heavily industrial, with coal mines near Montceau-les-Mines and iron foundries and crystal works in Le Creusot. These industries declined in the second half of the twentieth century, and Le Creusot has tried to reinvent itself as a tourist town.

Further reading

• Lecomte, Bernard; Thouart, Jean-Louis (2004). Burgundy, What a Story! (de Bourogne ed.). ISBN 978-2-902650-02-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Davies, Norman (2011). "Ch.3 : Burgundia: Five, Six or Seven Kingdoms (c. 411-1795)". Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe. London: Allan Lane. ISBN 978-0-141-04886-4.
• Loi n° 2015-29 du 16 janvier 2015 relative à la délimitation des régions, aux élections régionales et départementales et modifiant le calendrier électoral (in French)
• INSEE. "Produits intérieurs bruts régionaux et valeurs ajoutées régionales de 1990 à 2012". Retrieved 4 March 2014.

External links

• Template:En icon Burgundy : history in the open air—Official French website
• Template:Fr icon Burgundy statistics on INSEE website
• Template:Fr icon Regional Council website
• Template:En icon Short guide to Burgundy with main tourist attractions

• Template:En icon Template:ODP
• Burgundy in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia at BibleWiki
• Burgundy in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia at NewAdvent.org