At the intersection near the Place Wilson stands a Sherman tank named Duguay-Trouin, a veteran of the French liberation campaign. The tank belonged to the 1st French Army and entered Dijon on 11 September 1944 as German forces withdrew. It is preserved as a monument to the liberation and to the soldiers of the Second Armoured Division who helped drive the Nazis from Burgundy.
The sight of a full-size World War II tank sitting on a city street corner is somewhat incongruous, and Dijon's residents pass it daily without a second glance. For visitors with an interest in the war, it is a reminder that Burgundy was occupied and liberated — not merely a landscape of cathedrals and vineyards. The Place de la Libération's name, a few blocks south, carries the same history in more abstract form.