- This page is about the region of France. For the wine, see Burgundy
wine.
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Burgundy (French: Bourgogne) is a historic
region of France, inhabited in turn by Celts,
Gauls, Romans and Gallo-Romans, and various Germanic peoples, most importantly the Burgundians and
the Franks. Burgundy was a province of France until 1790, and is now an administrative
région.
History
The Burgundians were one of the Germanic peoples who filled the power vacuum left by the collapse of the western half of the Roman empire. In
411, they crossed the Rhine and established a kingdom
at Worms. Amidst repeated clashes between the Romans and Huns, the Burgundian kingdom eventually occupied what is today the borderlands between Switzerland, France, and Italy. In 534, the Franks defeated Godomar, the last Burgundian king, and absorbed the
territory into their growing empire.
Its modern existence is rooted in the dissolution of the Frankish empire. When the dynastic dust had settled in 880s, there were three Burgundies: the kingdom of Upper Burgundy around Lake Geneva, the kingdom of Lower Burgundy in Provence, and
the duchy of Burgundy in France. The two kingdoms of Burgundy were reunited in 937 and
absorbed into the Holy Roman Empire under Conrad II in 1032, while the duchy of Burgundy was
annexed by the French throne in 1004.
During the Middle Ages, Burgundy was the seat of some of the most
important Western churches and monasteries, among them Cluny, Citeaux, and Vézelay.
During the Hundred Years' War, King Jean II of France gave the duchy to his younger son, rather than
leaving it to his successor on the throne. The duchy soon became a major rival to the French throne, because the Dukes of
Burgundy succeeded in assembling an empire stretching from Switzerland to the
North Sea, mostly by marriage. The Burgundian Empire consisted of a number of
fiefdoms on both sides of the (then largely symbolical) border between the French kingdom and the German Empire. Its economic
heartland was in the Low Countries, particularly Flanders and Brabant. The court in Dijon outshone the French court by far both economically and culturally.
In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, Burgundy provided a power base for the rise of the Habsburgs, after Maximilian of Austria had married into the ducal family. In 1477 the last duke Charles the Bold was killed in battle
and Burgundy itself taken back by France. His daughter Mary and her husband Maximillian moved the court to Brussels and ruled the remnants of the empire (the Low Countries and Franche-Comté, then
still a German fief) from there.
See also: Duke of Burgundy
Wine
Main article: Burgundy wine
Burgundy produces famous wines of the same name. The most well-known
wines come from the Côte d'Or, although also viticulturally part of Burgundy are Beaujolais, Chablis, and Mâcon.
Geography
Highest point: Haut-Folin (901m) in
the Morvan.
The Canal of Burgundy joins the Rivers Yonne and Saône, allowing barges to
navigate from the north to south of France. Construction began in 1765 and was completed in 1832. At the summit there is a tunnel
3.333 kilometer long in a straight line. The canal is 242 kilomtres long, with a total 209 locks and crosses two counties of
Burgundy, the Yonne and Cote d'Or. The canal is now mostly used for riverboat
tourism; Dijon, the most important city along the canal, has a harbor for leisure
boats.
Culture
Famous Burgundian dishes include coq au
vin and beef
bourguignon.
External links
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