Auxerre (/oʊˈsɛər/ oh-SAIR,[3] French: [osɛʁ] ⓘ, Burgundian: Auchoirre) is the capital (prefecture) of the Yonne department and the fourth-largest city in the Burgundy historical region southeast of Paris.

Bourgeois activities accompanied the traditional land and wine cultivations starting from the twelfth century, and Auxerre developed into a commune with a Town Hall of its own.

In the 19th century numerous heavy infrastructures were built, including a railway station, a psychiatric hospital and the courts, and new quarters were developed on the right bank of the Yonne.

But the local authorities of that period refused the railway that was subsequently set in the village of Migennes, and signed the economic decline of the town.

[citation needed] In June 2024, the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research announced the discovery of a large Roman cemetery in Place du Maréchal Leclerc, Auxerre, France.