The most historic center of the town is characterised by the broad horse-shoe of the river Doubs, "la Boucle", which encircles the old town.
Vauban's imposing
Citadelle blocks off the neck. The historic center presents an ensemble of classic stone buildings, some dating back to the
Middle Ages and others to the Spanish Renaissance.
Gallo-Roman remains During Antiquity, Vesontio was an important metropolis of
Roman Gaul. It is adorned with monuments, some of which have survived,
archaeological excavations carried out during construction sites often revealing new discoveries dating from this period. The most emblematic and best-preserved monument dating from this period is the
Porte Noire, a Gallo-Roman
triumphal arch built under
Marcus Aurelius in the 2nd century in the Saint-Jean district. Heavily deteriorated by the vagaries of time and pollution, it was the subject of a long and difficult restoration operation at the beginning of the 21st century. Immediately below is the Square Castan, a garden with a collection of archaeological remains from the 2nd century or the 3rd century including in particular eight
Corinthian columns. On the other bank of the river Doubs, in the Battant district, the remains of the
Vesontio arena are visible: only a few steps and foundations have been unearthed, its stones having been widely used in the
Middle Ages for the construction of other buildings. There are several domus in the residential district of Vesontio. Among them, the domus of the Palace of Justice and the domus of the Lumière college with Roman mosaic exhibited in situ at the Besançon Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology. Other remains can be seen in more anonymous places, such as the ancient foundations in the underground car park of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regional council. File:Besançon, la porte Noire (2).jpg|The
Porte Noire, Roman
triumphal arch File:Besançon (Doubs) - Square Castan - Vestiges gallo-romains de Vesontio (52062478772).jpg|Square Castan. File:Vestiges Arènes Besançon.jpg|Archaeological remains of the Arena. File:Besançon, le musée des Beaux-Arts et d'archéologie.jpg|Roman mosaics from ancient Vesontio.
Fortifications and military buildings Most of the current fortification system (
citadel,
defensive wall made up of
ramparts and
bastions, Fort Griffon) is the work of the
military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban. This group of buildings allows Besançon to appear on the
UNESCO World Heritage List with eleven other sites under the title
Fortifications of Vauban. The forts on the other hills were all built in the 19th century. The only remaining pre-Vauban fortifications are Porte Rivotte, Porte Taillée, Tour Carrée, Tour Notre-Dame and Tour de la Pelote. The citadel of Besançon was built by Vauban from 1678 to 1771 and is the most visited site in
Franche-Comté with more than 250,000 visitors each year. It extends over eleven hectares at the top of Mont Saint-Étienne at an altitude between 330 and 370 meters, thus overhanging the meander of the river Doubs which has an altitude between 240 and 250 meters. It brings together a museum of Resistance and Deportation, a museum of Franche-Comté traditions, the regional archeology service and a zoo. It is the symbol of the city. Fort Griffon, whose name is that of the Italian architect Jean Griffoni who was commissioned to build a first fortification at this location in 1595, is a second citadel. It was Vauban who, at the end of the 17th century, had the current fort built. The city walls designed by Vauban includes all the fortifications of La Boucle historic district which were rebuilt from 1675 to 1695. Vauban in fact replaced the medieval defenses restored and completed by
Charles V in the sixteenth century with a belt provided with six bastioned
battery towers: the Notre-Dame tower, the bastioned tower of Chamars, the bastioned tower of the Marais, the bastioned tower of the Cordeliers (completed in 1691), the bastioned tower of Bregille and the bastioned tower of Rivotte. File:Citadelle Besançon.jpg|Citadel of Besançon. File:Besancon Porte Rivotte.jpg|Porte Rivotte. File:Besançon,_la_tour_de_la_Pelote_(1).jpg|Tour de la Pelote. File:Tour bastionnée de Chamars - panoramio.jpg|Tour de Chamars. Fortifications prior to the French conquest are also numerous. The Tour de la Pelote, located on the Quai de Strasbourg, is a defensive tower built in 1546 by the municipal government on the orders of
Charles V. Its name would come from the former owner of the land where it was built, Pierre Pillot, lord of Chenecey. The Porte Rivotte is a city gate dating from the 16th century, consisting of two round towers and a pediment carved with a sun which was King
Louis XIV's personal emblem. The Porte Taillée ("Carved Gate"), opened in a rocky outcrop, is the work of the Romans. It marks the entrance to the city on the road to Switzerland. It is surmounted by a guardhouse and a watchtower built in 1546. The "square tower", located in the promenade des Glacis, is also called the Montmart tower. It was built in the 13th century to defend the old entrance to the Battant district. The fortifications of the 19th century consist of a set of forts covering all the heights of the city: the fort of Chaudanne built from 1837 to 1842, the fort of Bregille built from 1820 to 1832, the fort of Planoise built from 1877 to 1880, Fort Benoit was built from 1877 to 1880, Fort Beauregard in 1830. Another example are the Trois-Châtels and Tousey
lunettes, both built at the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries, as well as the Rosemont battery built during the war of 1870–1871, the Fort des Montboucons built from 1877 to 1880 and the Fort des Justices built from 1870. A third Lunette d'Arçon was located on the site of Fort Chaudanne; only its tower was preserved during the construction of the fort in the first half of the 19th century. The Ruty barracks, formerly Saint-Paul barracks, are made up of four pavilions surrounding a courtyard serving as a
Place d'Armes and dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. It currently houses the headquarters of the
1st Armored Division and the
7th Armoured Brigade.
Places of worship After the city acquired an
episcopal see in the 3rd century, churches and abbeys multiplied during the period of the
High Middle Ages. Important constructions or reconstructions of religious buildings then took place in the 11th century during the episcopate of Hugues Ier de Salins and many churches were embellished or rebuilt after the French conquest of 1674. In 1842, the
Church of the Holy Spirit was officially ceded to the
Protestant community while the
Jewish community inaugurated its
synagogue in 1869. Finally, the
Muslim community had two
mosques built at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. The most important religious building dedicated to Catholic worship in Besançon is
Saint John's Cathedral, of
Gothic architecture, dating from the 9th, 12th and 18th centuries. It has two
apses and contains a masterpiece by
Fra Bartolomeo, the painting of the
Madonna in Glory with Saints painted in 1512. The cathedral dominates the old
chapter district which includes the
Archbishopric of Besançon located in the former Hôtel Boistouset and the former Archbishop's Palace currently occupied by the
Rectorate of the
academy. The Grand
Seminary was built from 1670 to 1695 by Archbishop Antoine-Pierre Ier de Grammont and completed in the 18th century by the elevation of the portal and the construction of the main facade. The chapel has a two-storey facade of Corinthian pilasters on the street. Its portal is surmounted by a tympanum where the sculptor Huguenin represented a Madonna and Child in 1848. At the other end of the old
cardo and current Grande Rue, is the
Sainte-Madeleine church built from 1746 to 1766 on plans by Nicolas Nicole. It was definitively completed in 1828–1830 with the construction of its two towers, one of which hosts the
Jacquemart bellstriker automaton. Its roof is made of
polychrome glazed tiles. Besançon, la cathédrale Saint-Jean.jpg| Besancon Ste. Madeleine 1.jpg| Besançon, la basilique Saint Ferjeux.jpg| Besançon, la chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Refuge (2).jpg| In the heart of the city centre, St Peter's Church, built by the Bisontin Claude Joseph Alexandre Bertrand from 1782 to 1786, impresses with the height of its bell tower which served as a
belfry for the
Hôtel de Ville, which is opposite. St Maurice's Church, founded in the 6th century, was rebuilt from 1711 to 1714 with a Jesuit-style facade surmounted by a carillon. Notre-Dame Church corresponds to the former Benedictine abbey of Saint-Vincent which was founded in the eleventh century. It was under the Empire that it became the parish church of Notre-Dame. Its facade was designed in 1720 by the architect Jean-Pierre Galezot. You can still make out the large entrance gate to the abbey and the 16th-century bell tower. Today it is occupied by the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences. Saint-François-Xavier Church, former chapel of the Jesuit college, was built between 1680 and 1688. Its plan is in the shape of a Latin cross surrounded by small side chapels. It was decommissioned in 1975. The Saint-Paul abbey, church of the former abbey founded around 628 by Saint Donat, archbishop of Besançon, was rebuilt in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Notre-Dame-du-Foyer chapel, built from 1739 to 1745 by the Bisontin Nicolas Nicole, was once the chapel of the Couvent du Refuge before being attached to the Saint-Jacques hospital in 1802. Outside the old town, among the important Catholic buildings, is the Saint-Ferjeux basilica of Romano-Byzantine style built on the cave of the patron saints of Besançon, Saint Ferjeux and Saint Ferréol. Notre-Dame des Buis, a 19th-century chapel, overlooks the city at an altitude of 491 metres. The Protestant community was assigned in 1842 the former hospice of the Holy Spirit, today the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is a 13th-century Gothic building augmented by a 15th-century chapel and deprived of its bell tower during the Revolution. It is distinguished by its gallery of sculpted wood, a masterpiece by an anonymous artist. Its neo-Gothic portal was created in 1841 by the architect Alphonse Delacroix in place of the old porch. The Jewish community, booming in the city in the middle of the 19th century, built the
synagogue of Besançon from 1869 to 1871 on plans by the architect Pierre Marnotte. Listed as a historic monument in 1984, it is particularly remarkable for its
Moorish style inspired by the Alhambra in Granada. The most recently built places of worship in Besançon are of Muslim faith: the Sounna Mosque built at the end of the 20th century on land ceded by the city in the Saint-Claude district, and the Al-Fath located in the district of Planoise.
Government and residentials buildings In the
16th century, many
palaces and
mansions were erected in the Boucle and Battant districts. The most important is the Palais Granvelle with
Renaissance architecture built for
Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle, Chancellor and Keeper of the Seals of
Emperor Charles V. It now houses the Museum of Time. The Hôtel de Ville (city hall) was built by the architect Richard Maire who completed it in 1573. It has an
ashlar façade in the spirit of Italian Renaissance palaces. Until the Revolution, a large niche in the façade housed a bronze statue of Charles V riding a two-headed eagle. The Palais de Justice (
Court of Appeal) was originally the second main building to the Hôtel de Ville. The construction was entrusted to the architect Hugues Sambin who was greatly inspired by the spirit of the Renaissance. The Hôtel de Champagney was built in the Battant district by Jacques Bonvalot, Lord of Champagney, during the first half of the 16th century. His daughter Nicole Bonvalot, widow of Nicolas de Granvelle, had the premises redesigned and the courtyard designed from 1560 to 1565 by architect Richard Maire. It is distinguished by the four
gargoyles that adorn its facade and by its interior courtyard with arched passageways and galleries with wooden columns. The Hôtel Mareschal belonged to an important Besançon family, the Mareschal family. Burnt down on 4 June 1516, Guillaume Mareschal had it rebuilt in 1532 with an ornamental flora that heralded the Renaissance. Other notable buildings dating from the sixteenth century are the Hôtels of Chevanney, Gauthiot d'Ancier, Anvers, Bonvalot, and Bouteiller. At that time, the hills around Besançon were covered with
vineyards: the city has preserved from this important viticultural past a dozen
cabordes, former vineyard huts made of dry
limestone. Immediately after the French conquest, the installations were mainly of a military nature. However, two other notable constructions were erected at the end of the 17th century. Work on the Saint-Jacques hospital, which was intended to replace the one located on rue d'Arènes, began in 1688 and was completed in 1701. Its monumental entrance gate, executed by the locksmith Nicolas Chapuis in 1703 has been replaced by a copy. The Vauban Quay was built from 1691 to 1695 by the engineer Isaac Robelin. It is a monumental set of houses with arcades. Cour du Palais Granvelle.jpg| Hôpital Saint-Jacques Besançon.jpg| Besançon, l'hôtel de ville (1).jpg | Hôtel Mareschal.jpg| Quai Vauban Besançon.jpg| During the
Age of Enlightenment, the town's urban planning underwent major transformations and the construction of remarkable buildings, notably due to its new status as capital. The Hôtel de l'Intendance, currently
prefecture of the
Doubs departement, was built from 1771 to 1778 at the request of the intendant Charles André de Lacoré. The plans were drawn up by the great Parisian architect
Victor Louis and the work directed by the bisontin architect Nicolas Nicole. It adopts the traditional plan of private mansions, with a main courtyard with a facade made up of six Ionic columns surmounted by a pediment and a garden at the rear of the building whose facade is decorated with a rotunda jutting out slightly. on the garden. The Théâtre Ledoux is an order from Monsieur de Lacoré to
Claude-Nicolas Ledoux who drew up the plans and entrusted the construction to Claude-Joseph-Alexandre Bertrand which began in 1778 and ended with its inauguration on 9 August 1784 under the crook of Louis V Joseph of Bourbon-Condé. With a capacity of 2,000 seats, it was considered very innovative, as it had a seated parterre, an amphitheater hall without boxes, and it was the first in the world to have an
orchestra pit. On 29 April 1958 a dramatic fire completely destroyed the interior and the roof of the building. The walls are the only witnesses that have survived, including the facade and its six monumental columns. Many mansions also attest to the prosperity of the city during this period. The Hotel Terrier de Santans was built between 1770 and 1772 for the Marquis Terrier de Santans, first president of parliament, by the architect Claude Bertrand. Other eminent families call on the greatest architects for their homes: the Hôtels Petit de Marivat, de Magnoncourt, Boistouset, de Courbouzon, de Clévans, de Camus, Querret, Terrier, and de Rosières. If the thermal baths of Besançon were completely destroyed in the 1950s, the city retains a number of buildings emblematic of its thermal past: the Grand Hôtel des Bains inaugurated in 1893, the municipal casino installed in a Belle Époque-style building inaugurated in 1882 or the Kursaal opened in 1893. It was also during this period that the
astronomical observatory and the Café du Commerce were erected, a brasserie from the second half of the 19th century with a rich interior decor in the Belle Époque style. Besançon, le Kursaal.jpg| Besançon, le Grand Hôtel des Bains.jpg| Besançon, le casino (2).jpg| Café du Commerce.jpg| Observatoire de Besançon.jpg|
Besançon's specialization in watchmaking has also left its mark on the city's heritage. The
astronomical clock located inside St. John's cathedral was commissioned in 1858 by Cardinal Mathieu from Auguste-Lucien Vérité. Composed of 30,000 mechanical parts, 57 dials and presenting 122 all interdependent indications, it is considered a masterpiece of its kind and classified as a Historic Monument in 1991. The National School of Watchmaking was built from 1928 to 1932 by the architect Paul Guadet. This imposing Art Deco building with a monumental clock on its facade now houses the Lycée Jules-Haag. The Dodane watch factory, completed in 1943, is an L-shaped reinforced concrete building whose construction was entrusted to the architect
Auguste Perret who also designed the interior decor elements. It has a private garden with swimming pool and tennis court. In the twenty-first century, two monumental clocks, works by Bisontin Philippe Lebru from the Utinam workshop, were installed on the facade of the Besançon Museum of Fine Arts and inside the Besançon Franche-Comté TGV station. In addition to the watchmaking heritage, other buildings with notable architecture were built during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Canot university campus was built from 1929 by the architect René Tournier and inaugurated by the President of the Republic Albert Lebrun in 1933. It was the first university residence in France. The Higher Institute of Fine Arts was built between 1970 and 1974 to plans by the Catalan architect
Josep Lluís Sert. The Cité des Arts inaugurated in 2013 is the work of the Japanese architect
Kengo Kuma.
Parks and gardens With of
urban open spaces, including of
forests, Besançon is considered the first green city in France with 204 m2 of green spaces per capita. The
Forest of Chailluz, covering , represents a quarter of the total area of the commune. The city is the owner of this mainly
deciduous forest, which includes a wildlife park and a
fitness trail in addition to numerous trails. The historic center is entirely surrounded by green spaces. To the west of the old town, on the left bank of the Doubs, are the Jardins de la Gare-d'Eau: in 1833, the construction of the
Rhone-Rhine Canal led the city to create a small port river shipping but it quickly fell into disuse after the opening of a
canal tunnel under the citadel. The park around the basin is currently owned by the
departmental council of
Doubs. The Chamars Promenade, attached to these gardens but further north, built in the fourth quarter of the eighteenth century, owes its name to the contraction of Champ de Mars (
Field of Mars). It was at first a
marshland separated into two parts by an arm of the River Doubs: the big and the small Chamars.
Vauban, judging this place vulnerable, fortified it with the help of
ramparts and
bastions. The city obtained permission to turn this space into a promenade in 1739. The architect Bertrand remodeled it between 1770 and 1778 by incorporating a café, public baths, an
aviary of rare birds, waterfalls, a botanical garden and many plantings. It largely disappeared after 1830 with the leveling of the inner rampart and the creation of the Gare d'Eau port. A public garden was refurbished between 1978 and 1982. The only surviving elements of the former Chamars Promenade are the two guard houses, some plane trees, and the stone vases of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Boutry. File:Besançon, la Gare d'Eau.jpg|Jardins de la Gare d'Eau. File:Besançon, la promenade Chamars.jpg|Promenade Chamars. File:Besançon, les cascades du parc Micaud.jpg|Promenade Micaud. File:Besançon, la promenade Granvelle.jpg|Promenade Granvelle. North of the historic district of Battant, on the right bank of the River Doubs, the Glacis Promenade, created in the middle of the nineteenth century, is the work of the landscape architect Brice Michel and the architect Boutterin. Right in the heart of this district, the Clos Barbisier is a garden created in 1988 and presenting an important variety of
roses. The green belt extends east of the old town, still on the right bank of the River Doubs, by the Promenade of Helvetia which houses a botanical garden called Jardin des Sens et des Senteurs (Garden of Senses and Scents) realized in 1987, accessible to the visually impaired thanks to its plants and shrubs with certain sensory features (smell, touch), and
Braille signs. Directly to the south is the Micaud Promenade, which has been progressively developed over from 1843 on plans by architect Alphonse Delacroix. It is named after Jules Micaud, the mayor who promoted the project. It includes more than four hundred trees, including a
southern magnolia and a
European beech, a
bandstand, a pond, and several sculptures. The Jardins du Casino, a public garden with flowering lawns and tree-lined avenues, is directly on the other side of Edouard Droz Avenue, which runs along Micaud Promenade. In the heart of the historic center, the Promenade Granvelle is the former private garden of the sixteenth century Granvelle Palace, which the municipality acquired in 1712 and which was opened to the public in 1728. The architect Bertrand redeveloped it into a public garden from 1775 to 1778. It includes a bandstand, an artificial cave, a
Wallace fountain, statues of
Victor Hugo and Auguste Veil-Picard, the portal of the church of the convent of the Great Carmelites, and a neoclassical colonnade, a remnant of a refreshment pavilion. The first
botanical garden in Besançon was created in 1580. It then occupied more than ten different sites, including the current location of Place Leclerc since 1957. The Parc de l'Observatoire, created in 1904 at the request of the director of the astronomical observatory Auguste Lebeuf, is home to a purple beech, a weeping beech, chestnut and pine trees. A statue of
Henri Bouchot stands in Besançon's Henri-Bouchot square. It was originally in bronze but was melted down by the
Vichy régime. The replacement in stone was made by
Georges Saupique. ==Culture==