The castrum of Divio

The full story

Before sheltering behind walls, Divio was an open town of some thirty hectares, which grew up from the early 1st century AD beneath today’s historic centre, more than 500 metres west of the great Roman road linking Lyon to Trier. At the end of the 3rd century, the new wall protected only part of this town: together with other settlements in the Saône valley, Dijon now watched over the military road. Some districts left outside emptied, such as the one archaeologists found near Rue des Godrans, abandoned from the 4th century in favour of the fortified town.

The rampart was punctuated by round or semicircular towers, 6 to 8.5 metres wide and more than 7 metres high. Around 570, Gregory of Tours credited it with walls 30 feet high and 15 thick (the foot being an old unit of length), built of large squared stones up to 20 feet, then of smaller stones. He also reported that, according to the elders, the emperor Aurelian had it built, and that the Suzon entered through one gate, passed under a bridge and flowed out through another.

Excavations, for their part, have located three gates. The best known, to the south-west, in line with Rue Amiral-Roussin, led to the Saint-Bénigne necropolis, the burial ground outside the walls. Another, called the Saint-Étienne gate, opened to the north-east, and a third probably stood to the south, in Rue de l’École-de-Droit. The “Lions’ Gate”, suggested by a place name, remains a hypothesis that has never been confirmed. Inside, in the 5th century, after Langres was sacked, a replacement cathedral group settled here: a “great church”, the bishops’ residence and a baptistery. Later, the dukes’ palace would grow out of a simple fortress built against the ancient wall.

The castrum gradually lost its defensive role, probably from the 11th century, and its stones ended up strengthening the town’s great wall. Its remains now lie on average more than 3 metres below our feet. The longest visible section is in the Rude museum, Rue Vaillant, in the choir of the former church of Saint-Étienne: 18 metres long and 3.7 metres wide, next to an 11th-century crypt. At 13 Rue Charrue, the Petit Saint-Bénigne tower keeps, in its lower part, regular limestone rubble bound with a characteristic lime mortar; the upper part, pierced with windows, was altered from that time onwards. Privately owned, it has been a listed historic monument since 26 July 1922. In Rue Longepierre, a stretch of wall and a tower were uncovered in 1955.