Auxonne

Auxonne stands on the Saône, where its river bridge and fortifications guarded the frontier between Burgundy and the Franche-Comté. Kings strengthened the town's defences as artillery changed the art of siege, and Vauban later improved the works. The union of Franche-Comté with France diminished Auxonne's role as a fortified border town, but its military schools and institutions remained important.

In the eighteenth century Auxonne housed an arsenal and an artillery school. Napoleon Bonaparte served there as a young artillery officer from 1788, studying mathematics and the work of an artilleryman under the teacher Lombard, whom he later praised. Years later, as First Consul, he kept both the arsenal and the school at Auxonne when their removal or closure had been proposed.