Bar-sur-Seine

Bar-sur-Seine grew on the Seine beneath the castle of its counts, on the borders of Champagne and Burgundy. Its market and river crossing supported a town repeatedly caught between rival powers. During the Hundred Years' War, companies of soldiers and English armies attacked the district, and Bar was plundered in 1432.

The Treaty of Arras in 1435 brought the town into the Burgundian sphere. A period of recovery followed, with commercial buildings rebuilt and fortifications repaired. War between Louis XI and Charles the Bold brought renewed destruction in the 1470s: the town was attacked and burned, and its castle was demolished in 1478. The market hall was rebuilt in 1480–81, and work on the church began in 1505; the bishop of Langres consecrated it in 1618.