The Basilica Notre-Dame-de-Dole
Every year, Air Corsica offers you direct flights at the begining of Bastia, throughout the summer (from june to september), unknown to the general public, yet it is a lovely place : the city of Dole, right in the center of Jura. A city which is characterized by the presence of a wonderful gothic basilica of the 16th century.
The building of the basilica Notre-Dame-de-Dole began in 1509. There used to be a church on this site since the 13th century. At the end of the 15th century, this church was severely damaged after various middle age conflicts. The new building, that used to be a Collegial until 1951, was to be designed in a blazing gothic style. Nevertheless, the architectural style had a very fast moving tendancy, the basilica have some kind of singularity : the north portal is gothic styled although the west portal is renaissance style.
Thus, up to the conquests of Louis XIV, the Collegiale Notre-Dame-de-Dole, which became a Basilica in 1951, was the capital of the Bourgogne county church. As a religious place, it had many wealth. Nowadays, it houses significant works of art : 16th century statue from bourgogne, neogothic chapels, paintings of Laurent Pecheux (a 13th century artist) and beautiful canopies of the 19th and 20th century (Gsell-Laurent, Gruber, Le Chevallier).
The Collegiale Notre-Dame-de-Dole was recently restored almost entirely, and its environment in the heart of the city was also revised. From now on, it stands out on a characteristic position that towers the Doubs river that flows below the ramparts of this ancient capital of Franche-Comté.
This building represents the architecture of Franche-Comté at the end of the middle-age and welcomes, in the summer conferences, visits and concerts.
A majestic and non-standard monument, a must-visit place, to be discovered in the Jura mountains thanks to Air Corsica direct summer flights between Bastia and Dole !
