Patrimony and history

THE GLORY OF A PRINCESS
Her name is unknown, as well as her exact title. She fascinates by the mystery which surrounds her, as so by the brightness of the attributes of her rank. She was powerful, certainly, and her wealth was the expression of her power. She carried wore a magnificent necklace of gold, when she was discovered in 1953 in her inviolate grave for more than 2500 years. In reference to a nearby village, she is named " the princess of Vix ".

She was found surrounded by multiple objects, among which appears the greatest bronze vase that Antiquity left us. 164 cm in height, decorated with busts of gorgones and with a relief frieze representing accompanied war tanks each accompanied by a hoplite (warrior on foot), it was certainly fabricated in Great Greece that is in current Italy of the South. This exceptional object was probably offered to the lady of Vix in homage to her power, based on the dominion of one of the main roads of time, that of tin, which followed the valley of the Seine. The " treasure of Vix " can today be admired in a meticulous reconstruction of the grave of its owner, in Châtillon-sur-Seine's museum.
Burgundy was, due to its geographic situation, in the heart of the Celtic epic. It is in Burgundy that took place the decisive episodes of the conquest of the Long pole by Julius Caesar, and it is not a fate. The Celtic civilization produced, here, excellent magnificences. The treasure of the princess of Vix, the ex-voto of the sources of the Seine, Bibracte's fortifications give evidence of the brilliance, 2000 to 2500 years past, of our region. Autun and Sens kept majestic bothers of their gallo - Roman past. And to make you cross, in a flash of lighting, centuries, since these dark times of hunters of Solutré, well before the arrival of first Bawdy, until the baptism of Burgundy at the dawn of the Middle Age, Archéodrome waits for you
At the edge of the highway A6.

BIBRACTE'S POWER
Five centuries after the princess of Vix, another great bronze Fibule bawdy power had become established in the heart of current Burgundy: the people of Eduens had established its capital, Bibracte, , on the Beuvray Mountain, dominating, since Morvan, passages between all the great river ponds surrounding Burgundy. Abandoned in aid of Autun, during the 1-st century of our era, Bibracte survived only in the legend and in an annual cattle market on Morit Beuvray. For a century and a half, thanks to the passion of the archaeologists, the buried city delivers bit by bit its secrets. Spectacular vision which that of the section of ramparts reconstituted in the technique of origin, in the locality " the Door of Rebout " crossed trunks, fixed by enormous nails, skeleton of an immense wall of ground covered with granitic stone! A progress under trees in unpredictable forms, survivals of these old creased hedges of the time when it was necessary to protect meadows and harvests of the cattle, leads to the "town centre". Here, things are more evident. In the middle of the main street, a monumental pool of granite, Greek tradition, marks the heart of the town. Quite all around, one begins to guess, in the course of searches, the lateral streets, districts, houses with their cellars. Farther down, in a clearing, the vestiges of vast and luxurious roman style houses are discovered. On the southwest side, numerous fountains, of which that, widely fitted out, of John Dory. And on the terrace of her Thatch, a viewpoint indicator helping to decipher the vast panorama of the South Morvan which opens in front of the walker, charming outcome of the most rural of walks. To really understand life in Bibracte and the brilliance of the town, the visit will include the Museum of the Celtic civilization, implanted on the side of the mountain, and which is itself an object of art. The purpose is to replace the knowledge of Bibracte in its European context. On two floors, the guest discovers, in an animated way, a daily life, the faiths and the institutes of the independent Gaule, but also other Celtic peoples. Temporary exhibitions complete presentation and conducted tours at a set time, from spring to autumn, making the approach of the site as the museum even more alive.

ALESIA 52 Before. J.c.!
If there is a historic event which made, to him only, tip over the fate of France, it is well the battle of Alesia. Here, around this hill where stretches now Alise-Sainte-Reine's peaceful village, took place, in 52 before. J.-C., the seat, then the battle that allowed Julius Caesar to integrate all theGaule into the Roman Empire. But to reach it, he needed weeks of siege and the organization of two lines of fortifications respectively of 15 and 21 km long, locking Bawdy besieging and protecting the Roman army from those that would try to free them. Herculean works tracks of which still can be guessed in the landscape.

THE SEINE: A SACRED SOURCE
The Seine takes its source in Burgundy, at about thirty kilometres in the northwest of Dijon, in the hollow of an afforested valley which cuts the calcareous plateau. According to the customs of Bawdy, which worshipped sources, fountains and resurgences as sacred places, a sanctuary existed, in the first centuries of our era here. Personified under the name of Séquana, the goddess of the river was called by the inhabitants of the region to obtain cure of all kinds of troubles. Now, after a little more than a century, a statue placed in the artificial cave where springs the main source took its raise, on the initiative of the baron Haussmann, because the site belongs to the city of Paris.
In practices holding at the same time medicine, magic and religion, numerous ex-voto were offered to the divinity to underline a demand of cure or to thank her for an obtained one. These objects, representing for the most part details of the human anatomy arms and legs, eyes and genitalia - were put deposited confusedly near the source. They make the glory of the archaeological Museum of Dijon today, where they are placed next to pilgrims' shows, in the characteristic dress, and with some objects of art of very beautiful quality, notably Séquana's bronze statuette in a boat.

AUTUN, SISTER AND EMULATOR OF ROME
The city of Autun - «Augustodunum " was built by the emperor August who offered to Eduens a new capital, a city conceived according to Roman standards. Since its foundation, Autun received privilege «to be surrounded with walls. 6 km long, this wall is the Augustine surrounding wall put around the best preserved of France. It possesses another two triumph gates: the door Saint André, in the East, a little reshaped, and Arroux's door, in the North, decorated with elegant pilasters. Near, is the enigmatic " Janus's temple ". Nobody comes out to whom was dedicated this building of native tradition.
The atmosphere which reigns in the Roman theatre is very different. This place of spectacle, protected in the two thirds, which was the biggest of its kind in all the Westerner Roman part of the Empire, is relived since ten years. Every summer in August, for some evenings, the rows of seats and the mossy vaults welcome thousands of spectators, which come to see playing there the antique history of the city. Tanks races which manœuvres are in formings of the Roman legionaries, incantations of the druids with the flasks of flavours of the patricians, Antiquity is resuscitated there. Numerous testimonies of the daily life in Augustodunum are exposed in the Rattan museum, in the high city, which grows rich constantly of fortuitous finds as results of excavations led in the city.