Eglise Saint-Philibert

As part of its mission to promote Dijon's heritage, the city of Dijon and its Tourist Office are now allowing Dijon residents and tourists to discover the magnificent 12th century church of Saint-Philibert. Saint-Philibert is the only Romanesque church in Dijon. The ideal opportunity for the people of Dijon to learn more about the history of this monument!

Disused for worship since the Revolution, the church was successively a stable, a saltpetre store and a salt warehouse. In the seventies, it was renovated and became a place for cultural activities. However, the erosion of the stone, caused by rising salt and humidity, forced the church to be closed to the public in 1979 for safety reasons.

Since 2002, the church Saint-Philibert is open every year for heritage days and exceptionally as in October 2010, during the urban exhibition art and design 21000. However, the municipality wanted to reopen this exceptional place to the public in a more permanent way and to give it a new function, the only Romanesque church in Dijon becoming once again accessible to the people of Dijon and to passing tourists. Work has therefore been undertaken to guarantee public safety and accessibility for people with reduced mobility on this site, which has been marked by its successive uses and the vestiges of time.

This site is now open to the people of Dijon and to tourists. A mediation system has been set up by the City of Art and History department. The church will therefore be accessible during the summer season, during which its large volumes will host contemporary art exhibitions coordinated by the Musée des Beaux-Arts, in collaboration with the Consortium-pôle d'art contemporain, the Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain de Bourgogne and the École Nationale Supérieure d'Art. The four institutions have been invited to reflect on an artistic proposal to revive this emblematic place. This project is in keeping with a tradition that is now well established in Dijon, that of making its former religious buildings spaces devoted to contemporary creation, whether plastic or theatrical.