Tournus, a former Roman garrison, lies on the banks of the Saône.
Tournus became an important religious center thanks to the influence of the abbey of Saint-Philibert, a masterpiece of Romanesque art.
The church of Saint-Philibert (early 11th century), one of the largest Romanesque monuments in France, is the main building of this former Benedictine abbey.
The Saint-Valérien church north of Tournus, built between 1008 and 1028, was the abbey church of the Saint-Valérien abbey. The masonry with fish bones reflects its age.
The Hôtel-Dieu, a former hospital, now houses the Greuze Museum, which collects the works of Jean-Baptiste Greuze, a painter born in Tournus (1725). The Hôtel-Dieu de Tournus is a classified Historical Monument with three large rooms, two chapels and one of the oldest pharmacies preserved in France (completed in 1685).
On the square of the town hall is a statue of Jean-Baptiste Greuze. The town hall, built from 1777 to 1779, is one of the four remaining town halls of the Ancien Régime in Saône-et-Loire (besides those of Bourbon-Lancy (1783), Givry (1771) and Louhans (1766)).