Auxerre was a flourishing Gallo-Roman
centre, then called Autissiodorum, through which passed one of the main roads
of the area, the Via Agrippa (1st century AD) which crossed the Yonne River
(Gallo-Roman Icauna) here. In the third century it became the seat of a bishop
and a provincial capital of the Roman Empire. In the 5th century it received a
Cathedral. In the late 11th-early 12th century the existing communities were
included inside a new line of walls built by the feudal Counts of Auxerre.
Bourgeois activities accompanied the
traditional land
