Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Beaune

BEAUNE, the chief town of an arrondissement in France, in the department of Côte-d'Or, situated on the River Bourzeoise, twenty-three miles S.S.W. of Dijon, on the railway from Paris to Lyons. The town is of poor appearance, but has several buildings of interest, such as the churches of Notre Dame and Saint Pierre, both of the 12th century, the hospital, founded by Nicholas Rollin in 1443, and the belfry of the old town-house. Of more modern erection are the public baths, the theatre, the communal college, and the library. In the 18th century there were no fewer than seven monastic buildings in the town besides a Bernardine abbey, a Carthusian convent, and a society of priests engaged in educational pursuits. Beaune enjoys considerable commercial prosperity as the principal seat of the Burgundian wine-trade; it also manufactures cloth, cutlery, and leather, and has dye-works, flour-mills, and distilleries. Population in 1871, 10,415.

Beaune appears as a fortified place as early as the 7th century, and for some time was the capital of a separate duchy. United to Burgundy in 1227, it became the first seat of the Burgundian parliament, or Jours Généraux, and was the residence of several of the dukes. On the death of Charles the Bold, it sided with his daughter, but was besieged and taken by Louis XI. in 1478. It suffered severely in the wars of the League, prospered in the reign of Henry IV., and was greatly injured by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.