Les Halles

The full story

The market hall was born in a fast-growing town: in the 19th century, Dijon’s population multiplied by 3.5 in less than a hundred years. As early as 1868, the company of Gustave Eiffel, the famous engineer born in Dijon in 1832, put forward plans for a large covered market. Yet work only began in 1873, on the site of the former Jacobin convent, which had to be demolished together with its church.

According to the tourist office, the framework came from the foundries and construction workshops of Fourchambault, in the Nièvre, and the roof was inspired by that of the central market halls in Paris. Like other Dijon buildings of the period, the halls combine metal with Saint Andrew’s crosses, X-shaped pieces that stop the structure from deforming. Prefabricated and economical, metal was then gradually entering architecture alongside glass: the halls are a true manifesto of this new way of building.

From the outside, the building borrows from classical architecture: a row of arcades rests on fluted columns whose capitals are decorated with vine shoots. The whole stands on a dressed-stone base, with panels of multicoloured brick in “Jacquart” patterns and large arched doorways. In the spandrels, the triangles between the arches, you can make out the heads of a deer, a mouflon, a wild boar and an ox, game, poultry, fish and eels, as well as medallions of Ceres, goddess of the harvest, and Hermes, god of trade.

A century after they were built, the halls escaped demolition and were listed as a historic monument on 29 October 1975. They still fill the block bounded by Rue Bannelier, Rue Claude-Ramey, Rue Odebert and Rue Quentin, and remain a centre of local food and conviviality, also hosting events such as the truffle market of December 2023. The nearby tram stop is even called “Godrans Les Halles”.