Palais des Ducs / Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon

The Palais des Ducs et des États de Bourgogne occupies the very heart of Dijon, the regional capital of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The palace served as the residence of the powerful Valois Dukes of Burgundy from the 14th to the 15th century, when Burgundy was an independent duchy that at its peak rivalled France in wealth and political influence. The building as visitors see it today is largely the result of 17th- and 18th-century reconstruction around a medieval core that includes the Tour de Bar and the Tour Philippe le Bon — the latter a 46-metre Gothic tower whose 316 steps reward the climb with a panorama over Dijon's medieval and 18th-century rooftop landscape. The palace complex houses the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, one of the largest and finest regional art museums in France, with permanent collections spanning ancient Egypt, medieval sculpture, Flemish painting, and French art from the 15th to the 20th century. Admission to the permanent collection is free, and the museum's ground-floor Salle des Gardes displays the spectacular carved tombs of the Valois Dukes — the tomb of Philip the Bold (completed 1410) with its procession of 41 alabaster mourner figures remains one of the masterpieces of Burgundian Gothic sculpture. The palace fronts onto the semicircular Place de la Libération, one of the most harmonious classical squares in France, and makes an ideal starting point for a walk through the medieval street network of Dijon's old city.