The city’s culinary identity is one of the best aspects of a visit. Burgundy gave France boeuf bourguignon, oeufs en meurette, jambon persillé, and the kir. Whether visiting the 19th-century iron-and-glass market hall or one of the DOZENS of Michelin restaurants and bistros, the town is replete with culinary treats.

Dijon is also a university town, which keeps it from feeling like a museum. The bars and cafés around the old centre are full of people who live there, which does wonders for the quality of the coffee and the honesty of the wine lists. So if you’ve been looking for a place in France that earns every hour you give it, history, architecture, food, wine, and a city that still feels like it belongs to the people who live there, Dijon makes a quietly convincing case for itself, whether you have a weekend or a week.

Getting There and Getting Around

From Paris Gare de Lyon, TGV trains run to Dijon-Ville in approximately 1 hour 40 minutes. The station is a 15-minute walk from the Place de la Libération, or a short tram ride. The historic centre is extremely flat and entirely walkable; you will not need a car within the city, and we barely used the trams!

If you plan to explore the vineyards of the Côte d’Or (and you should!), the Route des Grands Crus, which runs south through Gevrey-Chambertin, Nuits-Saint-Georges, and Beaune, you will want a car, or opt for a guided day trip from Dijon, since the most interesting wine villages are not well served by public transport. Beaune is the outlier, just 20 minutes south and reachable by train.

While two days is the minimum to do Dijon justice, three days allow you to add Beaune, or a village or two on the wine road, while a full week enables you to dive into the true atmosphere of the city, taking things at a leisurely pace, and feel like a local.

Practical Tips

Dijon is quieter than Paris, which means restaurants at the better end tend to be busy without being overwhelming, but booking ahead for dinner is still sensible during summer, holidays and on weekends. Many spots in Dijon are closed on Sundays and Mondays, as is common across provincial France, so it’s worth checking ahead before building your itinerary around a specific restaurant or shop. Arriving on a Tuesday with a market day (Les Halles runs Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday mornings) and a full week ahead of you is the most forgiving way to structure a first visit.

History of Dijon, France

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Dukes of Burgundy were wealthier and far more powerful than the King of France. Their empire stretched from the Alps to the North Sea, and they poured a substantial portion of their vast wealth into their capital. In 1363, the French king John II gave the Duchy of Burgundy to his youngest son, Philip, later known as Philip the Bold, partly to reward him for bravery at the Battle of Poitiers, and partly to keep it in the family. Philip was smart enough to know that agricultural Burgundy wasn’t much of a power base on its own, so he married Margaret, the heiress to Flanders, in 1369. Overnight, the Duchy of Burgundy became a state that controlled both the wine country of eastern France and the cloth-producing cities of the Low Countries. That combination, agricultural wealth plus manufacturing wealth plus a French royal pedigree, made the Dukes of Burgundy extraordinarily rich.

Philip the Bold used that money the way ambitious rulers in the Middle Ages typically did: he built. He commissioned the Chartreuse de Champmol just outside Dijon in 1383 as a dynastic mausoleum, staffed it with the best Flemish and French artists he could find, and turned it into an artistic laboratory that produced some of the most important sculpture of the 14th and 15th centuries. His grandson Philip the Good (1419–1467) pushed the dynasty even further. Under Philip the Good, the Burgundian state stretched from southeastern France to the North Sea, encompassing modern-day Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and significant parts of northern France. His court at Dijon was widely considered the most extravagant in Europe; he held banquets where the entertainment included mechanical ships, live performers inside giant pies, and what contemporary accounts describe as a general policy of maximum excess. He was also, somewhat contradictorily, the man who sold Joan of Arc to the English.

The whole project ended in 1477 when Philip’s son Charles the Bold died in battle without a male heir, and the French crown absorbed the duchy. Dijon became a regional capital instead of an independent one, and the architectural record of that brief, improbable century of ducal power is what you’re here to see. The historic centre survived the Second World War without serious bomb damage, and a postwar mayor stubborn enough to turn away developers ensured it survived the peace as well. The period between 1950 and 1975 demolished more of medieval France than any war had. Walking Dijon’s old streets now, you’re seeing something that most comparable French cities no longer have.

Where to Stay

Dijon is one of those cities where the accommodation itself can be part of the experience. The historic centre is dense with hôtels particuliers, the grand private mansions built by lawyers, administrators, and minor nobility over several centuries, and a good number of them have been converted into apartments available through Airbnb and similar platforms. Staying in one puts you inside the architecture rather than adjacent to it: vaulted cellars, Renaissance staircases, timber beams, and stone walls that a hotel lobby can’t replicate, often at prices that would get you a characterless chain room in Paris.

For those who prefer a hotel, the range in Dijon is wider than the city’s modest fame might suggest. The most characterful option is the Mama Shelter Dijon, the local outpost of the French boutique chain, which brings its usual combination of irreverent design and decent food-and-drink programming to the city, good if you want a social base rather than just a room. For something more classically Dijonnais, the Hôtel Maison Philippe Le Bon sits in a 15th-century building in the heart of the old centre, a few minutes’ walk from the palace, and makes no apologies for leaning into the ducal history the city is built on. At the budget end, the Hôtel des Ducs offers solid, well-located rooms without the frills, close enough to everything that you won’t spend money on transport.

What to Do in Dijon

Palace of the Dukes

The center of Dijon is organized around the Palais des Ducs et des États de Bourgogne, the Palace of the Dukes, which anchors the Place de la Libération, a wide semicircular square designed in the late 17th century by Jules Hardouin-Mansart (the same architect responsible for the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles).

The square was meant to celebrate Louis XIV’s absorption of Burgundy into France, which makes it mildly ironic that it now frames a building whose entire identity is inseparable from the Dukes who preceded French control.

The oldest visible section of the Palace is the Tour de Bar, a 14th-century tower on the north end that served as a state prison for a time (René of Anjou was one of its more notable guests).

Today, the Palace des Dukes it functions as the Dijon city hall, and the eastern wing houses the Musée des Beaux-Arts. Admission to the permanent collection is free, which feels almost suspicious given what’s inside.

The Musée des Beaux-Arts

Clear a morning for this. It’s one of the oldest provincial fine arts museums in France (opened in 1799, in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution, with a collection partially assembled from looted religious houses), and it has the range to prove it. Egyptian antiquities, medieval ivories, Renaissance paintings, 19th-century French canvases, a room of Flemish masters, the collection moves from Antiquity through the 20th century without feeling like it’s straining.

But the reason you’re here, the reason the museum occupies a different category from most regional collections, is the Salle des Gardes. This room contains the original tombs of Philip the Bold and John the Fearless. These are not quiet memorials. They are large, elaborate alabaster monuments with gilded effigies of the Dukes lying in state, and surrounding them are the pleurants, a procession of small hooded mourning figures carved in great detail, each one slightly different, each one in a distinct posture of grief. Philip the Bold’s tomb was begun by Jean de Marville in 1384 and finished by Claus Sluter and his nephew Claus de Werve after 1389. John the Fearless’s tomb, a double monument with his duchess Margaret of Bavaria, wasn’t completed until 1470, more than fifty years after his assassination.

The pleurants are worth stopping for. Medieval funerary sculpture tends toward the generic, figures that signify mourning without conveying it. These figures are specific. They look tired, absorbed, caught in private grief. Art historians often point to them as one of the first expressions of what would become Netherlandish naturalism, the close observation of actual human faces and postures that would eventually define northern European painting. They’re also small enough that you have to lean in to look at them, which is a good instinct. The detail is in the sleeves. The Escalier Gabriel, the grand stone staircase inside the palace, is worth a look even if you’re moving quickly. The Salle des États above it has a painted ceiling and gilded cornices and gives you a sense of the building’s 18th-century administrative life.

The Tour Philippe le Bon

Guided tours of the tower run through the Tourist Office and last about 45 minutes. You climb 316 steps to get to the top, and the view across the city’s rooftops, and specifically across its distinctive polychrome tile roofs, is worth the effort, especially on a clear day when you can see the vineyards of the Côte d’Or rolling south. Book ahead; the tours fill up, and there are limited spots per session.

Notre-Dame de Dijon

The Church of Notre-Dame, just north of the palace on Rue de la Chouette, was built mainly between 1220 and 1250, which puts it squarely in the high Gothic period. The facade is immediately unusual: rather than the twin-tower arrangement typical of French Gothic cathedrals, it’s almost flat, stacked horizontally with three rows of false gargoyles (there are reportedly 51 of them, which someone has presumably counted). The gargoyles are largely 19th-century restorations, the originals had decayed or been damaged, but the overall effect of the facade is striking anyway, more compressed and dramatic than the soaring verticals you expect from Gothic churches.

Inside, the stained glass is exceptional, including several 13th-century panels that survived intact. The statue of Notre-Dame de Bon-Espoir, a black Virgin dating from the 11th or 12th century and originally not black (the colour arrived gradually over centuries of candle smoke and handling), sits in a chapel to the left. She’s one of the oldest Virgin Mary statues in France, still in her original location.

On the exterior, on a buttress on the north side of the church, is the famous Dijon owl, a small stone carving that has become the city’s unofficial mascot and the origin point of the Parcours de la Chouette walking trail. The owl is worn nearly smooth from centuries of people rubbing it for luck (left hand only, according to tradition). You can feel the shape of it, but not much else. The Jacquemart clock on the facade, a mechanical figure that strikes the bell, was brought from Courtrai in Flanders by Philip the Bold in 1383 as war booty, which is a reminder that the Dukes had both the means and the temperament to collect things.

Cathédrale Saint-Bénigne

A few blocks southwest, the Cathedral of Saint-Bénigne is the older and, in some ways, stranger of the two major churches. The current Gothic nave dates from the early 14th century, but the crypt below it preserves parts of a 6th-century structure that was built over a Gallo-Roman cemetery, later expanded by Benedictine monks in the 10th and 11th centuries. The crypt is what you come for: it’s one of the most atmospheric underground spaces in Burgundy, a series of low Romanesque vaulted chambers that feel entirely separate from the Gothic cathedral above them. A small donation to the church is typically requested for entry.

Église Saint-Michel

Saint-Michel, east of the palace on the Place Saint-Michel, is worth seeing specifically because of what it illustrates about the transition between Gothic and Renaissance. Construction began in the late 15th century in the final phase of the Gothic style, the buttresses, the window tracery, the proportions. Still, the facade wasn’t completed until the early 16th century, by which point French builders had been exposed to Italian Renaissance ideas. The result is a facade that combines Gothic structural logic with classical decorative elements, including sculpted portal scenes of the Last Judgment that show Flemish influence in their facial expressiveness. It’s an architectural seam, which makes it more interesting than a building that commits fully to either style.

Musée de la Vie Bourguignonne

If the Palace of the Dukes explains how the ruling class spent its wealth, the Musée de la Vie Bourguignonne shows how everyone else actually lived. Located a short walk south of the historic centre on Rue Sainte-Anne, the museum occupies a former 17th-century Bernardine monastery whose cloistered courtyard and stone vaulting are worth the detour on their own, before you’ve looked at a single exhibit.

The ground floor focuses on rural ethnography and domestic routine: heavy practical furniture, period clothing, and a remarkably specific taxonomy of the bonnet styles worn by women across different parts of Burgundy, which sounds like a minor curatorial decision until you’re standing in front of it and realizing how much regional identity gets encoded in a piece of fabric. None of it feels trivial, because you are looking at the exact tools and textiles that sustained the generations who built the city around the grander monuments you’ve spent the rest of your visit admiring.

The more compelling reason to visit is upstairs. The first floor holds a life-sized reconstruction of Dijon’s commercial past, assembled from the actual wooden facades and interior fixtures of late 19th and early 20th-century storefronts that the museum saved before developers could demolish them. You walk past an old apothecary, a hat shop, a traditional grocery, and a restored porcelain seller, with dedicated sections covering the city’s industrial history including early mustard manufacturing equipment and ornate vintage tins from local biscuit factories. It is a precise physical record of how the city used to shop, and it sits in instructive contrast to the medieval and Renaissance streetscape you’ve been walking through outside.

Musée Magnin

The Musée Magnin represents the personal collections of works of art of magistrate Maurice Magnin and his sister. Located on Rue des Bons Enfants in the Hôtel Lantin, this is a remarkably preserved 17th-century townhouse, with a museum featuring over 2,000 works that the family bequeathed to the French state in 1938. Magnin attached a condition that has defined the experience ever since: the arrangement could not be altered. No modernization, no re-hanging, no curatorial intervention. It had to remain exactly as they left it, functioning as a traditional cabinet d’amateur rather than a public gallery.

Walking into the museum feels less like viewing a curated exhibition and more like trespassing in a wealthy, slightly eccentric relative’s home. The paintings are hung densely, stacked from the floor to the gilded cornices, with works spanning the 16th to the 19th centuries arranged by school into French, Italian, and Northern groupings. Because the Magnins collected according to their own highly specific tastes rather than market consensus, the walls place lesser-known regional painters shoulder to shoulder with recognised masters like Tiepolo and Le Sueur, with very little explanatory text to tell you what you’re supposed to think about any of it. You navigate the rooms the way the siblings did, evaluating the work on its own visual terms while stepping around 18th-century writing desks and heavy antique commodes that remain exactly where they were left.

Musée d’Art Sacré

If you visit the Musée de la Vie Bourguignonne, you are already standing in the courtyard of the Musée d’Art Sacré, which occupies the former church of the same Bernardine monastery next door. The building announces itself clearly: an imposing circular structure capped by a massive copper dome that anchors the southern edge of the historic centre and is visible from several streets away.

To understand why the collection inside exists, you have to understand the volatility of French institutional history. The Revolution stripped regional abbeys and parish churches of their assets in the 1790s, and the 1905 law formally separating church and state triggered a second wave of property transfers a century later. The Musée d’Art Sacré is essentially what survived both rounds: objects gathered from across the province specifically to prevent them from being melted down for their silver or sold off piecemeal to private collectors. It is a salvaged treasury as much as a museum, and the framing matters, because it changes how you look at what’s inside.

The collection focuses on the physical tools of Catholic ritual: intricately hammered silver ciboria, gilded reliquary crosses, and 17th-century vestments woven with heavy gold thread, alongside significant sculptural work including pieces by Jean-Baptiste Bouchardon. But the architecture is arguably as interesting as the objects themselves. The 18th-century rotunda creates an austere, soaring environment that forces your eye upward, and the circular layout gives the space a weight that a conventional rectangular gallery wouldn’t produce.

What to Eat in Dijon

Every city claims to have good food. Dijon has the institutional infrastructure to back it up: 30 Michelin-starred restaurants in the wider Burgundy region, a covered market that is one of the finest in France, and a rich culinary history. For a broader sense of Burgundian eating, the canonical dishes are: oeufs en meurette (eggs poached in red wine sauce, which sounds rustic and is, in fact, revelatory), boeuf bourguignon (beef braised in wine, obviously, but done differently when the wine is actually from Burgundy), and escargots with garlic butter. Kir, crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) mixed with Burgundy Aligoté, was invented here, or at least perfected here, named after Canon Félix Kir, the mayor of Dijon in the postwar period who promoted it as a regional signature.

Les Halles de Dijon

The covered market at Les Halles was built in 1868 in the Baltard style, the same iron-and-glass construction method used for the original Paris central market, Les Halles de Paris, before it was demolished in the 1970s. Some sources attribute the Dijon design to Gustave Eiffel, though this is worth taking with mild skepticism (Eiffel’s name gets attached to a lot of 19th-century ironwork, not all of it accurately). Whatever the provenance, the building is handsome, and the market inside it on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday mornings is worth planning a day around.

Arrive by 9 am, before the stalls thin out and before the serious local shoppers have taken everything worth having. The market covers 4,400 square metres with 246 stalls, and on Saturdays spills out onto the surrounding streets. What you’ll find: Époisses cheese (pungent, washed-rind, powerful enough to be banned on French public transport), Cîteaux cheese from the monks at the nearby abbey, jambon persillé (shredded ham set in a vivid green parsley aspic, a specific Burgundian thing, not found everywhere, worth tracking down), fresh escargots, gougères, charcuterie, seasonal produce, and local wine. The market bar inside the hall serves wine and small plates; sitting there for half an hour with a glass of Aligoté while the market moves around you is one of the better things you can do in Dijon.

La Buvette Dijon

Right at the center of the market, directly under the iron vaults of Les Halles, sits La Buvette des Halles. It is the physical and social anchor of the market. Run by a smal crew, who are truly the kindest people, might I add. The locals greeted us warmly, striking up conversation over morning glasses of Chablis, curious about our visit and eager to share their pride in the city.

The real beauty of La Buvette is its radical hospitality policy regarding outside food. You do not order a full meal here; you assemble it from the surrounding stalls and bring it to the bar. Walk over to the fishmongers along the outer ring, buy a half-dozen fresh, brine-heavy oysters from Normandy or Brittany, and ask for them to be shucked on a cardboard tray. Stop by the cheese counter for a wedge of Comté or a small crock of Epoisses. Then, walk straight back to La Buvette, find an open bar stool or a patch of standing room at a high-top table, and lay out your spoils. Order a glass of crisp, mineral-forward Aligoté, the sharp acidity is the perfect foil for the creamy fat of the cheese and the metallic salt of the oysters. The perfect morning combination!

Dijon Mustard

Ok, by now you must be wondering, “WHEN ARE WE GOING TO HAVE SOME DIJON IN DIJON?!” The story of Dijon mustard comes down to a single substitution: in 1390, a local maker named Jean Naigeon replaced the vinegar in the standard recipe with verjus, the pressed juice of unripe grapes, and the result was sharp and clean enough that the city formalized the recipe by decree the same year. That one decision is why the name has meant something specific ever since. The irony is that most Dijon mustard is no longer made from Burgundy mustard seeds; the seed crop shifted largely to Canada decades ago. But the recipe, the technique, and the name remain local.

Edmond Fallot

Edmond Fallot was a mustard company, founded in 1840 and still family-run. Fallot is the last independent mustard producer in Dijon, which gives it a particular significance in a city where the industry has otherwise consolidated into larger corporate hands. The shop is small and unpretentious, and the mustard here is made using traditional stone-grinding methods, which Fallot maintains partly out of conviction and partly because the results are measurably different: stone grinding generates less heat than industrial processing, which preserves more of the volatile compounds that give Dijon mustard its particular bite and complexity. The range includes classic Dijon, wholegrain, and a rotation of flavoured varieties using Burgundian ingredients, blackcurrant, tarragon, and Pinot Noir, which are worth tasting through before committing.

Maille

No exploration of Dijon’s mustard culture is complete without a visit to the Maille boutique on the Rue de la Liberté, one of the city’s most enduring retail institutions. Maille has been producing mustard since 1747, when Antoine Maille established the company in Paris as both a mustard-maker and vinegar distiller, supplying the French court and eventually earning the patronage of several European royal households, including the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Dijon boutique brings that history into an intimate, beautifully appointed shop where the emphasis is on mustard as a serious product rather than a souvenir. The range runs well beyond the familiar smooth Dijon; you’ll find mustards infused with Chablis, with blackcurrant, with herbs, and with aged Burgundy wine, served on tap from large ceramic crocks and dispensed into your own jar if you bring one, or into one of the shop’s own stoneware pots.

Mulot & Petitjean

No visit to Dijon is complete without stopping into Mulot & Petitjean, the city’s oldest and most celebrated pain d’épices house, which has been producing Dijon’s signature spiced gingerbread from the same address since 1796. The shop itself is worth a few minutes of your time before you buy anything. That is, if you go to the right shop. The popularity of Mulot & Petitjean has meant that there are now three locations in Dijon, but the original one you need to go to is the one on Place Bossuet.

The interior has the quiet, slightly serious atmosphere of a place that has been doing one thing well for a very long time and knows it. Pain d’épices is one of those products that loses almost everything in translation: what arrives in most countries as a dense, vaguely medicinal loaf bears little resemblance to what Mulot & Petitjean produces, which ranges from the classic honey-and-spice loaf to the nonnettes, small individual cakes filled with jam, glazed, and light enough to eat three of before you’ve registered eating one. They also produce flavoured variations and gift tins that make considerably more sense as souvenirs than another jar of mustard.

Where to Drink Coffee in Dijon

Dijon’s café scene has quietly developed a specialty coffee culture worth knowing about, concentrated in the streets of the historic centre and ranging from precise single-origin operations to the kind of all-day room you want to settle into for an hour with no particular agenda.

The most atmospherically placed of the four is Caffe Gufo, at 9 Rue de la Chouette, directly opposite the Hôtel de Vogüé and a few steps from the church buttress where the city’s famous carved owl sits. They roast their own beans and treat extraction with the seriousness that implies, pulling a precise espresso with considered sourcing, in a space that benefits from one of the better addresses in the old centre.

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WOLF Coffee and Toast, down at 24 Rue Charrue, operates as a modern, bright all-day space that bridges third-wave coffee and a proper food menu, and the name is reasonably literal about what you’re getting. What makes it particularly useful in a city where cafés and restaurants have an enthusiastic relationship with closing days is that WOLF is open every day of the week, including Sundays and Mondays, making it a reliable anchor when everything else is shut.

Around the corner from the Musée Magnin at 9 Rue des Bons Enfants, Le Grenier Café operates on a different model entirely. Opened in 2025 by two sisters, it functions simultaneously as a café and a vintage brocante, so you drink your coffee in a curated room of retro furniture and decorative objects, and if you find yourself particularly attached to the chair you’re sitting on, there’s a reasonable chance you can buy it. The pastries and seasonal lunch dishes are made in-house each morning, which puts it in a different category from a café that simply has food.

For the most focused specialty experience, NAPI Coffee at 16 Rue Musette sits in the primary pedestrian zone leading toward Les Halles and makes no attempt to be anything other than what it is: a small, intentional space where the staff knows exactly what they’re pouring, bean origin is taken seriously, and the milk texture is not an afterthought. They occasionally host community events, pottery workshops among them, which gives the place a neighbourhood feel that purely coffee-focused operations don’t always manage.

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Where to Find the Best Bread and Pastry

You will pass dozens of perfectly acceptable bakeries walking through the centre of Dijon. The baseline for baking in France is high, but the gap between a standard neighbourhood spot and a truly exceptional baker is still vast, and these three sit firmly in the latter category.

Boulangerie Buffon, at 16 Rue Buffon, is where you go for actual, substantial bread. The bakery works entirely with organic ingredients and natural leavens, using peasant flours and long fermentation times that produce loaves tasting unmistakably of grain, with a dense, structured crumb and a crust that requires some effort to break. They turn out a reliable lineup of morning pastries, but the slow-fermented loaves are the reason to make the trip.

At 80 Rue de la Liberté, Pralus is, strictly speaking, not a bakery at all. François Pralus is a master chocolatier from Roanne, and his Dijon boutique is stacked accordingly with serious blocks of chocolate. But the reason there is usually a line out the door is a single product: the Praluline, a butter-heavy brioche densely packed with crushed pink pralines, created by Pralus’s father in 1955 and baked continuously throughout the day in the front window.

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Tarterie Fine, at 4 Rue François Rude, is run by pastry chef Arnaud Collardot and does exactly what the name promises. Collardot produces a rotating seasonal selection of sweet and savoury tarts that look more like precision craftwork than standard bakery output, alongside highly structured viennoiseries and elevated versions of the croque-monsieur that have more in common with serious cooking than café food. It is a deliberate, modern approach to French pastry and offers a sharp contrast to the rustic loaves at Buffon, which makes visiting both on the same morning a reasonable way to understand the range of what Dijon’s bakers are doing.

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Where to Eat Lunch

If you commit to eating traditional Burgundian food at every meal, you will eventually hit a wall. The regional diet is notoriously rich, built on butter, wine reductions, and braised meats, and even enthusiastic eaters tend to need a lighter afternoon somewhere in the middle of a three-day visit. Knowing when to lean into the tradition and when to find a modern alternative is most of what good lunch planning in Dijon requires.

For a French lunch that revolves entirely around what you can slice and pour, Valentine et Hugo on Place Saint-Fiacre operates as both a specialty grocer and a wine bar inside a 17th-century building. The owners focus on small-production French cheeses and artisanal charcuterie, assembling large, specific tasting boards that you eat with wine by the glass in a room that hasn’t been overly sanitized for tourists. It is an excellent middle option between a sit-down meal and a market picnic.

Because the local culinary identity is so meat-heavy, a necessary wave of vegetable-forward kitchens has opened in the historic centre. On Rue Berbisey, Turnip operates as a strictly vegetarian and vegan street food kitchen, turning out plant-based burgers and sides that feel like deliberate cooking rather than a concession to dietary restrictions.

For a quieter sit-down alternative, La Causerie des Mondes on Rue Vauban functions as a hybrid tea room and bistro, with a frequently changing menu of vegetable-heavy soups, savoury tarts, and salads that provide a sharp, necessary contrast to whatever cream sauce you’ll likely be eating for dinner.

If you prefer your vegetables served in a more eccentric room, Le Nid on Rue des Godrans occupies a space that feels like a collision between a restaurant and an antique store, with vintage furniture, stacked produce crates, and mismatched retro plates providing the backdrop to a market-driven menu that is primarily vegetable-focused but does include well-executed meat dishes.

At some point during a longer stay, you will need a break from French cooking entirely, and when that happens, Lucilla, also on Rue des Godrans, is the answer. Part of a larger restaurant group but operating as a rigorous Neapolitan pizzeria, it turns out pizzas with the correct blistered chew and maintains a dedicated gluten-free pasta menu, which is a genuine rarity in provincial France. More practically, it is open seven days a week, making it an invaluable option for Sunday lunch when much of the city centre is locked up and quiet.

Where to Eat Dinner

If you are only going to invest in one serious dinner in Dijon, Cibo on Rue Jeannin is the current standard. Chef Angelo Ferrigno holds a Michelin star, but the room, set inside a 17th-century stone building, avoids the stifling formality that designation sometimes brings with it. The kitchen operates on a strict locavore mandate, sourcing every ingredient within 200 kilometres, which means no ocean fish, no citrus, and no concessions to what a Michelin-starred menu is supposed to look like. Instead, the tasting menus are built around freshwater fish from the Saône, local game, and intense fermentation techniques used to generate the acidity and depth that citrus and vinegar would otherwise provide. It is expensive, and you will need to book weeks in advance, but it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

For something operating on a similar wavelength but without the full financial and time commitment of a tasting menu, L’Évidence, further down the same street, is where chef Julien Burdin has held a Michelin Bib Gourmand for several years by delivering precise, seasonal bistronomy that doesn’t feel punishing. The menus shift constantly with market availability, anchoring Burgundian tradition with lighter modern technique, and a multi-course meal here rarely requires the three-hour time investment of a tasting menu.

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Sometimes you want good ingredients cooked simply and honestly. Monique Boire et Manger on Rue Amiral Roussin answers this need with unusual transparency: the menu explicitly lists the local farmers, cheese makers, and bakers supplying the kitchen, and you eat whatever they brought in that morning, paired with well-chosen low-intervention wines. It is a hyper-seasonal neighbourhood restaurant in the best sense of the phrase, without any of the self-congratulation that description sometimes implies.

When you want to lean fully into the region’s historic staples, La Fine Heure on Rue Berbisey is the place for a proper boeuf bourguignon or Gaston Gérard chicken, served by a younger team that treats traditional Burgundian cooking with respect rather than heavy-handed nostalgia. The cellar holds over 500 references and pours a generous selection by the glass, which makes it one of the better places in the city to work your way through the appellations of the Côte d’Or without committing to a full bottle per table.

After a few days of structured French dining, there will come a point where you cannot face another entrée-plat-dessert sequence. When that happens, Les Petits Oignons, also on Rue Jeannin, opens at 5pm as a late-night bar and brasserie focused entirely on sharing boards. White bean hummus, rillettes, regional cheese, a cocktail or a local beer: it is loud, casual, and exactly what dinner should be when you want it to be an activity rather than an event.

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Where to Drink

The obvious starting point is Dr. Wine, set inside a 17th-century mansion on Rue Musette, which stocks over 500 references and employs sommeliers who are genuinely good at navigating you away from predictable, overpriced labels and toward smaller, interesting producers. It functions as a restaurant as well, but the courtyard and lounge are built for serious wine drinking, and an hour there with a knowledgeable recommendation is one of the better introductions to Burgundy’s appellations you’ll find without actually driving into the vineyards.

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When you reach the point where you simply cannot look at another glass of Chardonnay, Nuage on Place Bossuet is the answer. It is a highly precise cocktail bar that focuses on French spirits, meaning the back bar runs to Armagnac, local gin, and Marc de Bourgogne rather than standard well liquor. They operate on a zero-waste mandate and source ingredients from local farmers, which gives the drinks a specificity that generic cocktail bars don’t manage.

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Directly on the Place de la Libération, Le Chat Qui Fume operates as a cozy, intimate alternative to the large brasseries nearby. The name translates as The Smoking Cat, and the space doubles regularly as a jazz and blues club with live music, which changes the atmosphere considerably depending on the night. In the colder months it is a very comfortable room for cocktails alongside fondue or charcuterie. Their live music schedule is worth checking in advance.

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Also on the Place de la Libération, Café Hugo is not where you go for rare vintages or serious mixology. You go for the terrace, which sits directly opposite the Palace of the Dukes and offers one of the best unobstructed sightlines in the city. Order a beer or a basic coffee, secure a table facing the square, and watch the city operate. The service occasionally reflects its position on one of Dijon’s most visited corners, but the view and the architecture are doing most of the work here, and both are reliable.

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The Mama Bar, inside the Mama Shelter hotel on Rue Docteur Maret, provides a necessary break from the city’s historic weight when you need one. The brand is known for loud, patterned design and a reliably casual atmosphere, and the Dijon outpost is no different: a large, social space that regularly hosts DJs and stays open late. If you want a quiet, contemplative drink, this is the wrong address. If you want a lively room and a cocktail that doesn’t take itself too seriously, it is exactly right.

Entertainment

Caveau de la Chouette on Rue des Godrans operates exactly how you want a French jazz club to feel. You descend into a vaulted stone cellar, which is practically a structural requirement for a serious wine and music bar in Burgundy, and the natural acoustics of the low ceiling give live performances a dense, intimate weight that purpose-built venues spend a lot of money trying to replicate. The programming leans into jazz, blues, and acoustic sets, and you sit at small tables with boards of local charcuterie and regional wine and actually listen to the music rather than shouting over it.

Where to Learn About Burgundy Wine

The appellation system here is among the most granular in France, mapping quality and price to specific plots of land rather than broad regions, and the difference between a village wine and a Premier Cru from the same commune can be substantial in both character and cost. Before you start spending seriously, a session at Vino Dilectio on Rue Berbisey will save you from buying the wrong things. Or just having an overall better understanding of what you’re drinking.

Run by local wine expert Emeline, the space operates out of a vaulted stone cellar, which is the correct architectural setting for this kind of conversation, and the sessions are capped at around ten people, which keeps it from feeling like a lecture. The standard format works through wines drawn from both the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune. You can opt for either the experience paired with regional cheeses or without. The wine alone experience is a little more in-depth, and you sample a few extra wines that are not included in the cheese pairing course.

Emeline is amazing and perfectly explains how the specific terroir affects root systems and the resulting vintage in terms that are clear and grounded rather than technically exhausting. You are given bread and water to reset your palate between pours, and the session occasionally concludes with a Grand Cru, which is a reasonable way to understand what the upper end of the appellation hierarchy actually tastes like before deciding whether it’s worth pursuing. The tasting runs roughly just over an hour

Where to Shop

On Rue des Godrans, Chapellerie Bruyas has been selling hats since 1881 and shows no signs of updating its approach, which is the point. The shelves run to structured fedoras, classic flat caps, and formal millinery, much of it still manufactured in France or Italy, and the staff insists on finding the exact fit and shape for your head with an expertise that barely exists in modern retail. They close on Sundays and Mondays, so confirm hours before making the trip.

For books, the city has two very different options depending on what you need. Au Chat Curieux on Rue des Bons Enfants is the kind of chaotic, crammed antiquarian bookshop that bibliophiles spend entire trips hoping to stumble across, stacked with second-hand books, rare antique editions, and vintage engravings in a space claustrophobic enough to force you to move slowly and actually look. For English-language reading material, Burgundy Bookworm on Rue du Champ de Mars operates specifically as a foreign-language bookshop, stocking novels alongside a careful selection of books on Burgundian history and culture for non-French speakers, which is a genuine resource if you arrive underprepared or finish your novel on the train down from Paris.

In the antique district on Rue Chaudronnerie, Fleuriste Isabelle Minini is not a standard corner florist. Isabelle Minini holds the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France, a highly competitive state-awarded distinction for elite craftspeople, and the shop feels more like a botanical art gallery than a retail space, with architectural seasonal arrangements that command serious prices. If transporting a large floral installation back to your hotel presents logistical difficulties, the window displays alone justify the detour.

A few streets away on Rue Piron, Madame Miettes functions as both a modern florist and a curated home goods store, sourcing flowers strictly from French growers and stocking independent ceramicists, hand-poured candles, and original prints alongside them. It is one of the better places in the city to find an object that reflects current French design rather than a mass-produced approximation of it.

On the main thoroughfare of Rue de la Liberté, Bensimon HOME carries the French brand’s iconic canvas shoes and ready-to-wear alongside a lifestyle and home collection running to graphic throw pillows, idiosyncratic tableware, and travel accessories, all in the specific casual aesthetic that has made the brand recognizable without making it ubiquitous.

Dijon is one of those places that keeps paying you back the more you put into it. Spend a morning at Les Halles with a glass of Aligoté and a board of Époisses, an afternoon getting lost in the streets around Rue des Forges, and an evening in a vaulted stone cellar working through a Côte de Nuits with someone who actually knows what they’re talking about, and you’ll leave with a better understanding of French history, food, and wine than most people accumulate in years of visiting France. The dukes are long gone, the mustard seeds mostly come from Canada now, and the city has a perfectly good cocktail bar if you need a break from Pinot Noir. But the bones of the place are extraordinary, and two or three days spent paying attention to them is time that won’t feel wasted.

Happy Travels, Adventurers

The post Ultimate Guide to Dijon, Burgundy’s Fantastic Foodie Capital City first appeared on The Creative Adventurer.

Table Of Contents

1. History of Schlossplatz
2. The Katholische Hofkirche
   • Church Exterior Decor
     • Interior Features
     • Dresden Baroque
3. Napoleon Stone
4. The Georgentor
5. The Residenzschloss
6. Ständehaus
7. Fürstenzug, Procession of Princes
8. Augustus Bridge
   • Happy Travels, Adventueres

History of Schlossplatz

Like much of Dresden’s historic center, the Schlossplatz, or Palace Square, and its surrounding 15th-century buildings suffered devastating damage during the Allied bombings in World War II. The once-majestic structures, steeped in centuries of history, were reduced to rubble, leaving a stark reminder of the war’s destructive power.

However, Dresden’s post-war reconstruction efforts are nothing short of miraculous. In a city-wide commitment to preserving its rich cultural heritage, Dresden undertook some of the most ambitious and detailed restoration projects in history. Guided by archival photographs, old plans, and detailed records, the restoration teams worked tirelessly to rebuild Schlossplatz and its neighbouring buildings exactly as they stood before the war.

Each stone was meticulously chosen, and original materials were reused where possible. Skilled craftsmen replicated intricate carvings, ornate facades, and delicate architectural details, ensuring the reconstructed buildings were as authentic as possible. The result is a seamless blend of old and new, where the scars of the past are respectfully integrated into a vibrant and fully restored urban landscape.

Today, visitors to Schlossplatz can hardly distinguish between the original and restored elements, a testament to the city’s dedication to honouring its history. The square and its surrounding structures now stand as symbols of resilience and the enduring spirit of Dresden, reminding us of the city’s ability to rise from the ashes and reclaim its place as a cultural and historical beacon.

The Katholische Hofkirche

Perhaps the most important structure in the Scholssplatz is the Katholische Hofkirche or Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. When the Katholische Hofkirche was first built, it was the epicentre of Catholicism in Dresden. Augustus III commissioned the church after his father had built a historical Protestant church on the other side of the old town. However, as a Catholic, Augustus III wanted a place for his Catholic subjects to come and practice their new chosen religions.

Church Exterior Decor

The original church was built in 1738 and completed in 1755. Its design was entrusted to the Italian architect Gaetano Chiaveri, who crafted a majestic and intricately detailed building, embodying the Baroque style’s grandeur.

The church’s exterior is adorned with 78 statues of saints, apostles, and church fathers, which stand on the balustrades that line the roof, giving the cathedral a distinctive and ornate appearance. The tower of the Hofkirche, reaching a height of 86 meters (282 feet), is a prominent feature of Dresden’s skyline, visible from various points across the city. Its towering spire and richly decorated facade make it a striking contrast to Dresden’s more subdued Lutheran churches.

The Hofkirche was heavily damaged during the Allied bombing of Dresden in 1945, but like much of the city, it was painstakingly restored to its former glory. Today, the cathedral stands as a symbol of resilience and faith, serving as an active place of worship while attracting visitors from around the world who come to admire its beauty and historical significance. Although most of the church is a restoration, you can still make out some of the original architecture. Look for the dark-coloured sandstone, which was discoloured from oxidization, denoting its age.

Interior Features

Be sure to take a peak inside the Hofkirche, as its interior never ceases to impress with its grand scale and artistic detail. The spacious interior has high vaulted ceilings, richly adorned altars, and stunning frescoes. One of the key highlights is the large pipe organ, originally designed by the famous organ builder Gottfried Silbermann. The organ has been carefully restored and used for concerts and services, adding to the cathedral’s vibrant cultural life.

Beneath the cathedral lies the crypt of the Wettin family, where 49 members of the Saxon royal family, including Augustus the Strong, are interred. This adds a layer of historical significance to the cathedral, making it a place of worship and a site of deep historical importance.

Dresden Baroque

The church was built in the high Baroque style. Baroque architecture often emphasizes the contrast between light and dark to create dramatic visual effects. Inside the Hofkirche, this is achieved through the strategic placement of windows and the use of natural light to highlight the ornate decorations, creating a spiritual and theatrical atmosphere. The church is richly decorated with stucco work, gilding, and detailed carvings. The altars, in particular, are adorned with intricate sculptures and gold accents typical of the Baroque style. The emphasis on ornamentation is designed to overwhelm the senses, drawing the viewer’s attention to the spiritual themes depicted.

The Balthasar Permoser altar in the Katholische Hofkirche is a stunning example of Baroque craftsmanship, characterized by its elaborate design and dramatic expression. The centrepiece is a powerful crucifixion scene, surrounded by dynamic statues of saints and angels, all rendered with exquisite detail. Richly ornamented with gilded elements, the altar draws the eye upward, creating a sense of movement and spiritual elevation, embodying the grandeur and emotional intensity typical of Permoser’s work.

Napoleon Stone

When you exit the church and walk back into the square, be sure to look closely at the stones on the ground; just near the steps into the cathedral, you’ll find a special stone with the letter ‘N’ engraved into it. This unassuming stone is called ‘Napoleon Stone and marks where Napoleon Bonaparte is believed to have stood while observing his troops before the Battle of Dresden in August 1813.

During this period, Dresden was a crucial strategic location for Napoleon as he sought to defend his empire from the advancing coalition forces. The Battle of Dresden, which took place from August 26 to 27, 1813, was one of the last major victories for Napoleon before his eventual defeat. The stone serves as a tangible reminder of the city’s role in these pivotal historical events.

The Georgentor

Walking about to the corner of the square, look towards the south, opposite the river, where you can see the old city’s gates, called the Georgentor. The Georgentor or Georgenbau is my favourite building on the square. Originally built in the 16th century, it was the main gate into the city and served as the ceremonial entrance to the Dresden Castle. It was also the first building in Dresden, built in the fantastical Renaissance and Neo-renaissance style, featuring rich ornamentation and intricate reliefs that celebrate the power and heritage of the Saxon rulers.

The building’s facade is also richly adorned with depictions of religious themes. At the entrance, figures representing life and death stand as sentinels, while above them, the ominous inscription “Per invidia Diaboli Mors Intravit In Orbs” (Through the devil’s envy, death entered into the world) is meticulously carved into the stone.

The Residenzschloss

Stretching out to the east and west, connected to the Georgentor, you can make out some of the outer walls of the Residenzschloss or Dresden Royal Palace. This impressive palace, originally constructed in the 16th century, has served as the residence of the Electors and Kings of Saxony. The portion from Schlossplatz showcases a stunning blend of Renaissance, Baroque, and Neo-Renaissance architectural styles, reflecting the various phases of the palace’s development and restoration.

One of the most striking features visible from Schlossplatz is the Hausmannsturm (Hausmann Tower). With its distinctive copper roof, this tall, commanding tower rises above the palace, offering an iconic silhouette against the Dresden skyline. The tower is crowned with a large, gilded weather vane and serves as a reminder of the palace’s royal heritage. Visitors can even climb the tower for panoramic views of the city.

The Residenzschloss also houses several world-renowned museums, including the Green Vault (Grünes Gewölbe), which contains a treasure trove of artifacts and artwork, and the Turkish Chamber (Türckische Cammer), known for its collection of Ottoman art.

Ständehaus

The more modern Ständehaus, or Saxon Supreme Court, is on the east side of the square, built between 1901 and 1907. This building serves as the meeting place for the Saxon parliament, known as the Landtag, or the “House of Estates.” It’s a beautiful example of Historicist architecture, blending elements of the Neo-Renaissance style with Baroque influences.

Sitting outside the Ständehaus is the great statue of Friedrich August I of Saxony. The statue was erected in 1843 to honour the reign of Friedrich August I. The statue, created by the sculptor Ernst Rietschel, depicts Friedrich August I in a regal and contemplative pose, dressed in classical robes, symbolizing justice and wisdom, holding a sceptre in one hand, representing his authority and leadership. His calm demeanour in the statue reflects his reputation as a fair and just ruler, which earned him the title “the Just.”

Friedrich August I played a crucial role in modernizing Saxony. His reign was marked by significant legal reforms, including introducing the Saxon Civil Code, one of the most progressive legal systems of its time. He also invested in the development of infrastructure, including roads and bridges, which contributed to the region’s economic growth.

Fürstenzug, Procession of Princes

Just around the corner from the Ständehaus, you’ll immediately notice the massive mural stretches along the walls. This installation is called the ‘Fürstenzug,’ or the Procession of Princes. This work of art is a remarkable 102-meter-long, with tiles depicting a parade of 35 Wettin Dynasty rulers and other notable figures. Created in the late 19th century and later replaced with Meissen porcelain tiles, it is the largest porcelain artwork in the world, with 23,00 Meissen tiles! The mural celebrates Saxony’s royal heritage and cultural achievements, surviving the bombings of World War II largely intact.

Augustus Bridge

To finish this little guided walk through Dresden’s Scholssplatz, head over to the Augustus Bridge. The Augustus Bridge is a historic and iconic structure linking the Altstadt (Old Town) with the Neustadt (New Town) across the Elbe River. Although the current sandstone bridge was built between 1907 and 1910, it stands on the site of a series of bridges that have spanned the river since the 12th century.

Designed with nine arches to allow for better river traffic, the bridge blends functionality and classical beauty, seamlessly integrating with Dresden’s historic architecture. Standing on this bridge, watching the many boats pass by, and the sound of the horse-drawn carriages rush by is one of those quintessential Dresden experiences.

Exploring Dresden’s Schlossplatz is like stepping into a living museum, where every corner reveals a new chapter of the city’s rich history. As you walk through this historic square, you’re not just visiting buildings—you’re experiencing the essence of Dresden, a city that has gracefully blended its storied past with its vibrant present. Make this spot a must-see on your next visit to this city, which is replete with history!

Happy Travels, Adventueres

The post An Enchanting Guided Tour of Dresden’s Schlossplatz first appeared on The Creative Adventurer.

#1 Gellert Baths

The Gellert Baths are not only one of the most iconic places in Budapest to rest and relax, but they are also some of the most beautiful. The art nouveau style design of the thermal spa has put awe on the faces of bathers for ages. The baths were built between 1912 and 1918, but the healing waters were used as far back as the Middle Ages. The Turks built a Sárosfürdő (“muddy” bath) in the 16th century and called the area the “magical healing spring.” One of the most beautiful areas of the space is the main hall, which has a stained glass Art-Nouveau-style roof. But my favourite space is the old male spa (which now can be enjoyed by all genders). Blue mosaics encase this room in a relaxing aura. Click here for my first-timer’s guide to thermal baths!

#2 Fisherman’s Bastion

Fisherman’s Bastion has one of the greatest views across Budapest. But the Bastion itself is a stunning architectural masterpiece atop Buda Hill. Its neo-Romanesque lookout terraces and spiralling turrets make this place a joy to behold. Walk along the 35-meter-long parapet, which acts as a balcony to the Danube River. The seven towers which decorate the roofline represent the seven chieftains of the Hungarians who founded Hungary in 895. There are so many angles from which to get your favourite shot of the Bastion. From above or below, this structure has so much majesty. It can get busy with tourists, but since it’s so large, it’s easy to find a quiet area for your perfect shot.

#3 View from the Funicular in Buda Castle

The Buda Hill Funicular has been a stalwart method of transportation in Budapest for more than a hundred years. It takes guests and tourists alike from the base of Buda Hill to the top of Buda Castle. This historical cable care has been running since 1870. It was destroyed in a WWII bombing raid, but it has been lovingly reconstructed. They ensured the new design kept the original, retro style. As the funicular goes up the hillside, you’ll have an incredible vantage point across Budapest. And see if you can fit some of the other vintage cable cars in your shot for those extra details!

#4 St. Matthias Church

St. Matthias Church, or Church of the Assumption of the Buda Castle (as it is more formally known), is a Roman Catholic church at the heart of Buda’s Castle District. The original church built on this site was constructed in 1015! The current version is a restored structure from the late Gothic style built in the 14th century. Since the Turks converted the church into a mosque in the 16th century, many of those elements remain. Creating this fusion between Christian and Islamic architecture. In the 19th century, diamond-patterned roof tiles were added to create perhaps the most appealing part of the church. While controversial at the time, today, this bold choice has made the church highly sought after by tourists and photographers alike.

#5 Buda Castle

Buda Castle was where Hungarian kings and queens spent their days ruling the empire as early as 1265. The Baroque palace we see today was built between 1749 and 1769. There is something about the repetitive windows and symmetrical baroque design which is utterly pleasing to the eye. And perfect for a photographer! But my favourite place in the palace is the Matthias Fountain. The fountain is located in the western forecourt. It depicts King Matthias Corvinus surrounded by his beloved hounds, who have killed a deer. Above him are a statue of a hawk and a doe. They stand among a pile of fallen rocks with water running between them. They feel like they have been frozen in time and add a bit of life to the still life of the castle.

#6 New York Palace

The New York Palace is a luxury hotel on the Grand Boulevard in Budapest. Stepping inside its front doors feels like entering a royal residence, despite the fact that it is just a hotel. Despite the inclusion of the word “New York,” the palace bears no resemblance to the US city. This is simply because the building was built by the New York Life Insurance Company, which used it as its head office starting in 1894.

While the hotel might break the bank for most visitors, their cafe on the first floor is a great alternative. The cafe and bar are still costly, but the interiors are worth the price of admission. The gilded restaurant is covered in lush tapestries, frescoes, fantastical faun sculptures, and enormous swirling marble columns. The cafe has always been a hub for Hungarian poets and writers and is sure to inspire all those who enter.

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#7 Szimpla Kert Ruin Bar

You can’t say you’ve been to Budapest without visiting a Ruin Bar. In the early 2000s, old, dilapidated buildings in the Jewish Quarter were given new life. Szimpla Café opened up inside one of these abandoned structures. The bar owners had little money to renovate the space but wanted to open it up. So, instead, they embraced the ramshackle environment and used their creativity to create an erratic, bohemian environment. They offered young customers cheap drinks inside this crumbling building. Over the years, artists came in and added their own touches. Custom graffiti, vintage oddities, and mismatched furniture created a king of curated chaos. Which ends up being quite mesmerizing. The environment inside is boisterous and joyful. Discovering all the different creations inside the bar is the best part of visiting a Ruin Bar. It feels like a little scavenger hunt!

#8 Flippermúzeum Pinball Museum

Deep underground in Budapest, you’ll find one of the most interesting and colourful exhibitions: the Flippermúzeum or Pinball Museum. This exhibition/museum/arcade features over 130 machines spread out inside its underground lair. The pinball machines date from as early as the 19th century and into the modern era. There is something wonderfully mysterious about the dimly lit basement set ablaze by these iconic arcade games’ bright neon and flashing lights.

#9 The Hungarian Parliament Building

The most iconic image of Budapest is the famous Hungarian Parliament Building. It sits on Kossuth Square on the Pest side of the city. The building is nestled against the edge of the Danube River. The proximity to the river means a reflection of the building is almost permanently emblazoned onto the water. The symmetrical neo-Gothic architecture was designed by architect Imre Steindl in 1902 and is still one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city today.

There really isn’t a bad angle you can get on this building, but my favourite time of day to shoot it is at night. Parliament looks like it had been cast in gold and shines against the midnight blue of the river. Seeing it from across the other side of the Danube, you can really take in the entirety of the building reflected in the water.

#10 Central Market Hall

When you step inside Budapest’s Central Market Hall, delightful sunlight pouring through the glass windows creates the most welcoming effect. Built-in 1896, it is the largest and oldest indoor market in Budapest. The brightly coloured vegetables, rich red paprika for sale, and beautifully designed wrought iron railings create the most inviting backdrops for your photos.

#11 Ruszwurm Cafe

This tiny bakery in the Buda Castle district feels like something out of Marie Antoinette’s Versaille. The gorgeous pastries inside the glass cabinets look almost too good to eat. The interior is one of the coziest little shots, paired with the antique decor. Ruszwurm Cafe was first established in 1827, and you can still eat the same recipes they served on their opening day! Be sure to try the Mille Feuille cake; it might be one of the best versions of this recipe, even if it is not available in France!

#12 Széchenyi Thermal Bath

The Széchenyi Thermal Baths were built in 1913 in grande Neo-Baroque style. The enormity of this spa makes it almost feel like a public park. Families are chatting, old men are playing chess, kids are playing, and newlyweds are cuddling up. The only difference is that everyone is in their bathing suits and caps! One of the best parts of the Széchenyi Baths is the brightly coloured outdoor space. Under the blue sky, you can soak in the relaxing waters set against a sea of golden-yellow buildings. There is something just so radiant and cheery about this space. It’s hard not to want to take a million pictures while unwinding from the stress of travel!

#13 Heroes’ Square

Heroes Square, or Hősök tere, is one of the largest squares in Budapest. Around the perimeter are statues of the Seven Chieftains of the Magyars and other important Hungarian national leaders. They were cast in copper and set in between towering columns. In the centre of the square is a huge column topped by the statue of archangel Gabriel. In his hand, he holds the Holy Crown of St. Stephen (Istvan), the first king of Hungary. There is something so powerful about having a picture of yourself in this square. The juxtaposition of your tiny frame and the large statues brings their enormity to the forefront.

#14 Dohány Synagogue

The Jewish Quarter in Budapest is my favourite part of the city. It is full of history but also super modern in a bohemian way. The streets feel so alive even when they are empty. In the centre of the Jewish Quarter, you’ll find the great Dohány Synagogue. The Great Synagogue is the largest synagogue in Europe and towers over the rest of the district. The twin onion domes, banded in gold, shimmering in the sunlight, draw you in.

The synagogue was built in 1854 in Moorish revival style, with inspiration and designs from Islam, north Africa and medieval Spain. I could spend hours studying the different ornamentations and patterns that decorate this space. It is awe-inspiring. Whether you only see it from the outside or choose to venture inside, there are so many beautiful angles from which to study this synagogue. It’s a photographer’s dream.

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#15 Széchenyi Chain Bridge

The Széchenyi Chain Bridge connects the Buda and Pest sides of the city together over the Danube River. The bright green ironwork of the bridge was an innovation by English engineer William Tierney Clark made in 1849. The colouring feels like something which makes the bridge stand out in the middle of the city. But when it was first built, it was more than just functional. The bridge was a symbol of Hungary’s advancement in technology and engineering. It was of national significance, linking the East and the West together as one part of a great city.

The bridge became something that brought calmness and balance to the two sides. To this day, walking down the bridge still gives you a sense of this harmony. This bridge is as important as the Brooklyn Bridge in New York or the Golden Gate in San Francisco. Getting a picture of yourself on the bridge is a great way to mark your arrival or departure from Budapest.

I hope you enjoyed this tour of my favourite photo spots in the city! Let me know in the comments what you’re most looking forward to seeing!

Happy Travels Adventurers!

The post Uncover the Beauty of Budapest: A Guide to the Top 15 Amazing Photography Locations first appeared on The Creative Adventurer.