Notre-Dame of Dijon
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Transcript
Notre-Dame represents the wealthy urban Dijon that existed alongside the ducal court. Its thirteenth-century Gothic façade is famous for rows of gargoyles and for the jacquemart clock figures added over time.
A local legend says touching the small carved owl on the church’s exterior with the left hand while making a wish brings good luck. Legend: the owl ritual is local tradition, not a medieval guarantee backed by canon law.
The church matters more seriously because dukes depended on cities whose merchants, clergy and guilds possessed their own institutions.
Burgundian state-building was dynastic, but it operated through urban economies.
The owl has become one of Dijon’s tourism symbols. This is efficient: a tiny damaged carving now performs more civic branding than several former dukes.