département
In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety- ...
in the
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (; , sometimes abbreviated BFC; Arpitan: ''Borgogne-Franche-Comtât'') is a region in Eastern France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions, from a merger of Burgundy and Franche-Comté. The new region c ...
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
Dijon
Dijon (, , ) (dated)
* it, Digione
* la, Diviō or
* lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920.
The earl ...
Beaune
Beaune () is the wine capital of Burgundy in the Côte d'Or department in eastern France. It is located between Lyon and Dijon. Beaune is one of the key wine centers in France, and the center of Burgundy wine production and business. The annu ...
and
Montbard
Montbard () is a commune and subprefecture of the Côte-d'Or department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France.
Montbard is a small industrial town on the river Brenne. The ''Forges de Buffon'', ironworks established by Buff ...
.
History
Côte-d'Or is one of the original 83 departments created during the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...
on 4 March 1790. It was formed from part of the former
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...
of
Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The ...
.
Geography
The department is part of the current
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
of
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (; , sometimes abbreviated BFC; Arpitan: ''Borgogne-Franche-Comtât'') is a region in Eastern France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions, from a merger of Burgundy and Franche-Comté. The new region c ...
. It is surrounded by the departments of
Yonne
Yonne () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the river Yonne, which flows through it, in the country's north-central part. One of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté's eight constituent departments, it is l ...
,
Nièvre
Nièvre () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, central-east France. Named after the river Nièvre, it had a population of 204,452 in 2019.Saône-et-Loire
Saône-et-Loire (; Arpitan: ''Sona-et-Lêre'') is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the rivers Saône and Loire, between which it lies, in the country's central-eastern part.
Saône-et-Loire is ...
Aube
Aube () is a French department in the Grand Est region of north-eastern France. As with sixty departments in France, this department is named after a river: the Aube. With 310,242 inhabitants (2019),Haute-Saône
Haute-Saône (; Arpitan: ''Hiôta-Sona''; English: Upper Saône) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of northeastern France. Named after the river Saône, it had a population of 235,313 in 2019.Haute-Marne
Haute-Marne (; English: Upper Marne) is a department in the Grand Est region of Northeastern France. Named after the river Marne, its prefecture is Chaumont. In 2019, it had a population of 172,512.Côte d'Or escarpment, which takes its name from that of the department. It is the south-east facing slope of this
escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations.
The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''esca ...
which is the site of the celebrated
Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The ...
vineyard
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vine ...
s. To the west of the Plateau de Langres, towards
Champagne
Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, ...
, lies the densely wooded district of Châtillonais. To the south-east of the plateau and escarpment, the department lies in the broad, flat-bottomed valley of the middle course of the
Saône
The Saône ( , ; frp, Sona; lat, Arar) is a river in eastern France. It is a right tributary of the Rhône, rising at Vioménil in the Vosges department and joining the Rhône in Lyon, at the southern end of the Presqu'île.
The name der ...
.
Rivers include:
* The
Saône
The Saône ( , ; frp, Sona; lat, Arar) is a river in eastern France. It is a right tributary of the Rhône, rising at Vioménil in the Vosges department and joining the Rhône in Lyon, at the southern end of the Presqu'île.
The name der ...
* The
Seine
The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plate ...
rises in the southern end of the Plateau de Langres.
* The Ouche rises on the dip slope of the escarpment and flows to the Saône via Dijon.
* The
Armançon
The river Armançon () drains part of north-western Burgundy in France. It is long. It rises at Meilly-sur-Rouvres in the department of Côte-d'Or and flows into the Yonne (right bank) at Migennes. Its source is at about above sea level and ...
rises on the dip slope of the escarpment and flows north-westward.
* The Arroux rises on the dip slope of the escarpment at the southern end of the department.
Climate
The climate of the department is continental, with abundant rain on the west side of the central range.
Principal towns
The most populous commune is
Dijon
Dijon (, , ) (dated)
* it, Digione
* la, Diviō or
* lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920.
The earl ...
, the prefecture. As of 2019, there are 5 communes with more than 10,000 inhabitants:
Demographics
The inhabitants of the department are called ''Costaloriens''.
Population development since 1791:
Politics
The President of the General Council is
François Sauvadet
François Sauvadet (born 20 April 1953) is a French journalist and politician of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) who has been serving as the president of the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France since 2008.
Early career
Sauva ...
of the
Union of Democrats and Independents
The Union of Democrats and Independents (french: Union des démocrates et indépendants, UDI) is a centre to centre-right political party in France and former electoral alliance founded on 18 September 2012 on the basis of the parliamentary grou ...
.
Current National Assembly Representatives
Economy
This is a premier wine-growing region of France. It produces what are arguably the world's finest, and definitely most expensive
Pinot noir
Pinot Noir () is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words for ''pine'' and ''black.' ...
and
Chardonnay
Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new ...
wines from some of the most rigorously and painstakingly (thanks to the region's many monasteries) classified vineyards in the world. Wine from the Côte-d'Or was a favorite of the emperor Charlemagne. Other crops include cereal grains and potatoes. Sheep and cattle are also raised in the department. The region is famous for
Dijon mustard
Dijon mustard (french: Moutarde de Dijon) is a traditional mustard of France, named after the town of Dijon in Burgundy, France, which was the center of mustard making in the late Middle Ages and was granted exclusive rights in France in the 17 ...
.
There are coal mines and
heavy industry
Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); ...
, including steel, machinery, and earthenware.
The industries most developed in Côte-d'Or are
* agriculture and food (14% of employees)
* metallurgy and metal manufacture (12% of employees)
* chemicals, rubber and plastics (12% of employees)
* pharmacy
* electrical and electronic components and equipment
* wood and paper industries.
The big works are generally in the conurbation of Dijon although biggest (CEA Valduc) is at
Salives
Salives () is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Côte-d'Or department
The following is a list of the 698 communes of the Côte-d'Or department of France.
The communes cooperat ...
in the Plateau de Langres. There is also the SEB metal works at Selongey below the plateau on the margin of the Saône plain and the Valourec metalworking group at
Montbard
Montbard () is a commune and subprefecture of the Côte-d'Or department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France.
Montbard is a small industrial town on the river Brenne. The ''Forges de Buffon'', ironworks established by Buff ...
in the west of the department on the River Brenne near its confluence with the Armançon.
The
Pharmaceutical industry
The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, Vaccine, vaccinate them, or alleviate s ...
has shown the greatest growth in recent years.
However, since the Dijon employment statistics zone includes the urban and administrative centre of the Burgundy region, the
service sector
The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector ( raw materials) and the sec ...
is proportionately bigger there in relation to the industrial, than in the other three zones of Côte-d'Or.
* Referenc Industry in Bourgogne website
Tourism
Some of the major tourist attractions are the Gothic abbey church of
Saint-Seine-l'Abbaye
Saint-Seine-l'Abbaye () is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France.
It is also a place steeped in history with its archaeological sites, the goddess Sequana; nymph Sources close to the Seine and Alesia, the remnants of its anci ...
and the 11th-century Romanesque abbey church at
Saulieu
Saulieu () is a rural commune in the Côte-d'Or department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. Its 2,413 inhabitants (in 2017) call themselves Sédélociens.
Capital of the Morvan, situated within the Morvan Regional Na ...
Cistercian Order
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Sain ...
, lies to the east of
Nuits-Saint-Georges
Nuits-Saint-Georges () is a commune in the arrondissement of Beaune of the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France. It lies in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region.
Wine
Nuits-Saint-Georges is the main town of the Côte de Nuits wine-produc ...
in the south of the department.
File:Palais des Ducs.JPG,
Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy
The Palace of the Dukes and Estates of Burgundy or ''Palais des ducs et des États de Bourgogne'' is a remarkably well-preserved architectural assemblage in Dijon. The oldest part is the 14th and 15th century Gothic ducal palace and seat of the ...
in
Dijon
Dijon (, , ) (dated)
* it, Digione
* la, Diviō or
* lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920.
The earl ...
File:Hostel Dieu Beaune.jpg,
Hospices de Beaune
The Hospices de Beaune or Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune is a former charitable almshouse in Beaune, France. It was founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin, chancellor of Burgundy, as a hospital for the poor. The original hospital building, the Hôtel-Dieu, one o ...
File:Abbaye de Fontenay-EgliseBatiments.jpg, Abbey of Fontenay
File:Chateau La Rochepot 01.jpg,
Château de la Rochepot
Château de La Rochepot is a 12th-century feudal castle of neo-Gothic-Burgundian style, rebuilt in the 15th century. In the 19th century, it was completely restored and covered with glazed burgundy tiles. It is located in the commune of La Roche ...
Burgundy wine
Burgundy wine ( or ') is made in the Burgundy region of eastern France, in the valleys and slopes west of the Saône, a tributary of the Rhône. The most famous wines produced here, and those commonly referred to as "Burgundies," are dry red w ...
French wine
French wine is produced all throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France is one of the largest wine producers in the world, along with Italian, Spanish, and Ame ...