Église Notre-Dame de Beaune

The Collégiale Notre-Dame de Beaune, usually called a basilica in the tourist literature, is the great church of the town and a short walk from the Hospices. It is one of the main Romanesque churches of Burgundy, begun in the first half of the twelfth century when the influence of Cluny, the great Benedictine abbey a day's ride to the south, shaped much of the region's building. The church was built over many decades and then altered in the Gothic period, so a visit shows several centuries of architecture in a single walk.

From outside, the church has a broad Gothic porch, added in the fourteenth century, with three arches that shelter the western doors and give the visitor a good place to look at the carvings. Above and behind it rises a tower with a heavy roof in the Burgundian style, completed in the late sixteenth century. Round the back you can see the chevet with its flying buttresses, a reminder that after a fire in the thirteenth century the Romanesque building was strengthened and given taller openings.

Inside, the nave has the sober feel of Cluniac architecture, with pointed barrel vaults, round arches and a triforium of carved pilasters. The transept and choir are lighter. Look for the capitals, for traces of medieval wall paintings in some of the chapels and for the carved stone details in the apse and the ambulatory. The main treasure is a set of tapestries called the Life of the Virgin Mary, woven in the fifteenth century in the workshops of Tournai and hung in the choir. They are only shown on selected days, usually in the warmer months and outside services, so check before you go if they are the reason for your visit. The church also holds a statue of the Virgin, and the organ is used for concerts.

The church is still a working centre of local religious life, and a college of canons has long been connected with it. Visitors are welcome in the building, but services take priority, so keep your visit quiet and avoid walking about during Mass. Entry is free, and one to two hours is a comfortable length of visit if you include the exterior.

The church stands a short walk from the Hospices de Beaune (Hôtel-Dieu), and it sits close to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Beaune and the wine museums, so it fits easily into a morning of sightseeing before a cellar visit at the Cave de l'Abbaye. It suits anyone who likes medieval architecture, textiles or quiet sacred spaces, and it makes a good contrast with the more elaborate, colourful Hospices.