Museum of Fine Arts Dijon

To your right, you will see a sweeping structure of pale stone arranged around a vast U-shaped courtyard, marked by its stately classical columns and tall, elegant windows. Welcome to the Museum of Fine Arts of Dijon. You are looking at the former Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy, a seat of massive political power that the famous architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart later redesigned.

If you check your screen, you can see a great shot of the main entrance housed in this ancient palace.

This is one of the oldest and most important museums in all of France. But its origin story is surprisingly humble. A local artist named François Devosge officially founded it in seventeen eighty-seven. François wanted to create a free drawing school, open to everyone. To help his students learn, he needed masterpieces for them to copy, so he convinced the local government to establish a museum right here in the palace. He essentially created the world's most spectacular classroom.

Take a look at your app again. That is the Salle des Statues, or the Hall of Statues. François designed this original room specifically to display plaster and marble antiquities for his students.

The museum faced its darkest hour during the Second World War. A young curator named Pierre Quarré suddenly had to save the collection from destruction and looting. When the government issued the evacuation order in nineteen thirty-nine, Pierre closed the doors and sent the very first convoy of art rolling out that same day. He organized ten secret trips to hide over nine hundred of the museum's most important works in a rural castle outside the city.

But what about the things that were too big to move? The medieval tombs of the Dukes of Burgundy are massive, intricate structures of carved stone. Pierre could not simply put them on a truck. So, his team built heavy timber frames directly over the tombs and stacked them high with heavy sandbags. They entombed the monuments in the dark to protect them from bombings. Pierre even personally stood down foreign soldiers who marched in to confiscate the remaining bronze statues.

Today, after a massive seven-year renovation completed in two thousand and nineteen, the space is spectacular. Across fifty rooms, you will find everything from ancient Egyptian funerary masks to the finest works of the European Renaissance.

Just a quick note, the museum is open every day from nine thirty AM to six PM, except Tuesdays when it is closed. This incredible building survived centuries of conflict to preserve the beauty within it. Enjoy this space, and whenever you are ready, we can head to the next stop.