File:Castles and chateaux of old Burgundy and the border provinces (1909) (14597686619).jpg

Identifier: castleschateauxo00mans (find matches)
Title: Castles and chateaux of old Burgundy and the border provinces
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Mansfield, Milburg Francisco, 1871- (from old catalog)
Subjects: Castles
Publisher: Boston, L. C. Page & company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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fobservation and remark. CHAPTER IV SEMUR-EN-AUXOIS, EPOISSES AND BOTJEBILLY Due east from Avallon some thirty odd kilo-metres is Semur-en-Auxois. It is well describedas a feudal city without and a banal one within.Its mediaeval walls and gates lead one to expectthe same old-world atmosphere over all, but,aside from its churches and an occasional archi-tectural display of a Renaissance house-front,its cast of countenance, when seen from its de-cidedly bourgeois point of view, is, if not mod-ern, at least matter-of-fact and unsympathetic. In spite of this its historical recollections aremany and varied, and there are fragmentsgalore of its once proud architectural glorieswhich bespeak their prime importance, and alsothat the vandal hand of so-called progress andimprovement has fallen heavily on all sides. The site of Semur to a great extent gives itthat far-away mediaeval look; that, at least,could not be taken away from it. It possesses,moreover, one of the most astonishing silhou- 50
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^ Semur-en-Auxois, Epoisses, Bourbilly 51 ettes of any hill-top town in France. Like Con-stantine in North Africa it is walled and bat-tlemented by a series of natural defences in theform of ravines or gorges so profound that cer-tainly no ordinary invading force could haveentered the city. Semur was formerly the capital of theAuxois, and for some time held the same rankin the Burgundian Duchy, The city from within suggests little of medise-valism. Prosperity and contentment do notmake for a picturesque and romantic environ-ment of the life of the twentieth century. Itwas different in the olden time. Semur, by andlarge, is of the age of medisevalism, however,though one has to delve below the surface todiscover this after having passed the greatwalls and portals of its natural and artificialramparts. Semurs boiirg, donjon and chateau, as therespective quarters of the town are known, tellthe story of its past, .but they tell it only bysuggestion. The ancient fortifications, as en-tire w

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