Welcome to Dijon!
Dijon is the largest city in the eastern French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Dijon is best known for its mustard (named after the town), which is no longer produced in its metropolitan area, but it is still one of the most beautiful cities in France, and its historic buildings and byways were not heavily damaged by the bombing in World War II and are largely intact.
Dijon is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Northeastern France. In 2017, the commune had a population of 156,920.
The earliest archaeological finds within the city limits of Dijon date to the Neolithic period. Dijon later became a Roman settlement named Divio, located on the road from Lyon to Paris. The province was home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century, and Dijon was a place of tremendous wealth and power, one of the great European centers of art, learning, and science. The city has retained varied architectural styles from many of the main periods of the past millennium, including Capetian, Gothic, and Renaissance. Many still-inhabited townhouses in the city's central district date from the 18th century and earlier. Dijon architecture is distinguished by, among other things, toits bourguignons (Burgundian polychrome roofs) made of tiles glazed in terracotta, green, yellow, and black and arranged in geometric patterns.
Dijon holds an International and Gastronomic Fair every year in autumn. With over 500 exhibitors and 200,000 visitors every year, it is one of the ten most important fairs in France. Dijon is also home, every three years, to the international flower show Florissimo. Dijon is famous for Dijon mustard, which originated in 1856, when Jean Naigeon of Dijon substituted verjuice, the acidic "green" juice of not-quite-ripe grapes, for vinegar in the traditional mustard recipe. Dijon is also a green city with an important tertiary sector, as well as a regional economic center with a diversified fabric, a traditional food-processing center (Dijon crême de cassis and kir, gingerbread, Lanvin chocolate...) and a renowned pharmaceutical sector.
The historical center of the city has been registered since 4 July 2015 as a UNESCO World Heritage site as one of the components of the climates of the Burgundy vineyard.