Notre-Dame de Dijon Church: A Medieval Gem You Can’t Miss, by Claire Balas

It may “only” be a church, without the status of a cathedral, but Notre-Dame de Dijon made it onto the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2015.
Indeed, Notre-Dame de Dijon is considered a masterpiece of 13th-century Gothic architecture. It was built at record speed, in about 20 years, between roughly 1220 and 1240.

Between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Its west front is especially interesting, and quite unusual for a French Gothic church: it does have the three pointed arches typical of church entrances, but the upper section is made up of two decorated galleries that give the church a square look, and it lacks the traditional Gothic structure with its upward-pointing lines. So in fact, the church looks more like a Venetian Renaissance building than a French Gothic one.

The galleries are decorated with an unusually large number of 51 stone-carved figures that look like gargoyles. These are figures of people, animals and monsters, meant to scare off evil spirits and protect the building. But at Notre-Dame de Dijon, these figures don’t serve the other traditional role of gargoyles, as waterspouts. That’s because most of them are “dummy gargoyles,” there purely for decoration. In architectural terms, they’re therefore called “grotesques” rather than gargoyles.

These aren’t the original grotesques, since those were destroyed right after the church was completed, following a fatal accident. According to the sources, a moneylender came to the church to get married, and while he stood in the church courtyard, a statue of… a moneylender… came loose from the building, fell on his head and killed him. As a result, out of superstition and fear, the city’s aldermen ordered the grotesques torn down, and only 600 years later, toward the end of the 19th century, during renovations of the church, it was decided to bring the frightening figures back.

The tympanums (the triangular stone panels above the entrance doors) of the church’s three portals were originally carved with scenes depicting the Adoration of the Magi, the Coronation of the Virgin, and Golgotha, but sadly these were completely destroyed in 1794, after the Revolution, and were never restored.

The Robot Family That “Works” at the Church

Another unique sight in the church is the JACQUEMART. What’s a Jacquemart? It’s an artistic automaton, a figure carved in wood or metal, that marks the hours by striking a bell with a hammer. The origin of the word isn’t clear. Some believe it comes from the Latin word JACCOMARCHIARDUS, the nickname for bell-keepers who wore a JAQUE (in German, JACKE = coat), which was actually the flexible armor worn by knights. Another theory is that the word comes from combining JACQUES and MARTEAU (hammer)…

There are several famous Jacquemarts in Europe, including the one on the clock tower in Venice (Torre dell’Orologio) and the one on the clock tower in Bern (Zytglogge). But the Jacquemart of Dijon is one of the oldest and most unique. The clock was stolen in 1382 from the town of Kortrijk in Flanders by the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold, who had gone there to help his father-in-law, the Count of Flanders, deal with a local uprising.

Philip was so taken with this marvel, which automatically marked the hour by striking a bell, that when he returned to Dijon, he had the Jacquemart installed on the bell tower of Notre-Dame.

In the 17th century, the people of Dijon took pity on the Jacquemart for being all alone. They decided he needed a wife to help him with his work… and so in 1651 a wife was added, and ever since, the work has been split equally between husband and wife, each striking the bell on alternating hours. The people of Dijon decided to name the wife Jacqueline.

And of course, an average family has children too, right? So in 1714, they decided to add two children, a boy and a girl, who would be responsible for marking the half hour and the quarter hour, since people wanted more precise timekeeping and weren’t satisfied with just the full hours anymore… The children, unsurprisingly, are named Jacquelinet and Jacquelinette.

One more small curiosity in this church is found on its north wall, on a street called Rue de la Chouette: a small, polished owl statue. Did the street get its name from the statue, or was the statue placed there because of the street’s name? Nobody knows, but either way, the owl is the symbol of the city of Dijon, and there’s a superstition that rubbing the statue, with your left hand only, will bring you luck…

Practical information for visiting Notre-Dame de Dijon

I highly recommend that anyone visiting the wonderful city of Dijon not miss this unique church! If you decide to take my advice, here’s everything you need to know to visit.

Church address

2 Place Notre Dame

Opening hours

The church is open to the public every day from 08:00–18:00.

What else can you see nearby?

• The Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy (address: 1 Rue Rameau), a 4-minute walk from the church.
• The Dijon Museum of Fine Arts, located next to the Palace of the Dukes.
• La Moutarderie Edmond Fallot (address: 16 Rue de la Chouette), a factory shop belonging to one of Dijon’s oldest mustard makers (since 1840).

If you’re traveling around Burgundy and want to discover more interesting places, check out the Burgundy page on the site.

A few words about Claire Balas

Claire has been a tour guide specializing in France for 26 years. She lived in Paris for 3 years and speaks fluent French. She holds a degree in history from Tel Aviv University.

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