Semur-en-Auxois

Semur-en-Auxois is a charming town in Burgundy with some splendid old buildings. The view above shows the church and two surviving towers from the castle, both dating mainly to the 13th century.

The town's medieval core is built on a pink granite bluff more than half-encircled by the River Armançon. The river formerly provided power for tanneries and mills, until the 18th century when a dam was built to divert much of its water into the Canal de Bourgogne. 

The place is first attested in a charter of 606, which calls it Sene Muro or "old walls". Archaeology confirms that it was occupied in Carolingian times, but it does not appear again in written records until the 11th century when it was the seat of the Count of Auxois. The county was soon absorded into the Duchy of Burgundy, so it was the Duke who granted the town a charter in 1276.

According the French wikipedia, the town was famous for holding seven fairs every year. One of these was the Fair of Quasimodo, which sounds interesting but Quasimodo is just the Sunday after Easter. The name comes from the Latin words of the mass recited on that day, which begins quasi modo geniti infantes, "like just born infants." Which is why Victor Hugo chose that name for his child-like hero.

The church, La Collégiale Notre-Dame, was founded in 1225 and built over the next fifty years in flamboyant Gothic style. 

The church was restored in the 19th century by that mad Frenchman Eugene Viollet-le-Duc. Which is cool because he is so famous, and it means he left many wonderful drawings, but on the other hand it means you have no idea whether any of the stonework you see is medieval or Viollet-le-Duc. I'm guessing Violet-le-Duc for the face above.

No idea about these heads.

I hope this is a medieval door.

The existing walls were built in the 1360s by Philip the Bold, one of Burgundy's most famous Dukes. He got his name from fighting so bravely at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. On the other hand he was taken captive, so he was braver than he was effective. Like the whole French side in that horrific defeat, come to think of it. Anway, after he paid an enormous ransom and won his release in 1360 he decided that his towns needed stronger walls against the perfidious English.

The town was a bastion of the Catholic League during the Wars of Religion. Many additions were made to the church around that time in Renaissance styles, including this baptismal chapel.

Seventeenth-century convent.

One of the town's annual events these days goes back to 1566, a footrace called La course de la bague, the Race of the Ring. The prize is a gold ring, hence the name. The race is preceded by a series of races for children of different ages known as La Course des chausses, the Race of the Shoe.

Seems like a wonderful place to be on a lovely late spring day like today.