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67-595: The most populous settlement of the basin lies on its banks, Besançon . Its course includes a small waterfall and a 4-kilometre (2.5 mi) narrow lake. From its source in Mouthe it flows northeast: a few kilometers north of the French-Swiss border, then to form the border for less distance, about 40 km. North of the Swiss town of Saint-Ursanne it turns west then southwest. South-east of Montbéliard it adopts

134-477: 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 . 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

201-788: A sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the French–Swiss border . While the Jura range proper (" folded Jura", Faltenjura ) is located in France and Switzerland, the range continues northeastwards through northern Switzerland and Germany as the Table Jura ("not folded Jura", Tafeljura ), which is crossed by the High Rhine . The mountain range gives its name to

268-489: A Celtic word for mountains, with similar putative etymologies (e.g. * juris , "mountainous forest") still appearing in more recent non-academic publications. However, since there are no clear cognates in the surviving corpus of the Celtic languages, modern studies of Proto-Celtic and Gaulish etymology tend not to list any lemmata connected to Jura, and the name must be considered fundamentally unclear. The Jura Mountains are

335-679: A far province of the larger Central European uplands . The Jura range proper lies in France and Switzerland. In France, the Jura covers most of the Franche-Comté region, stretching south into the Rhône-Alpes region and north into the Grand Est region. The range reaches its highest point at the Crêt de la Neige (1,720 m (5,640 ft)), in department of Ain , 5 km west from

402-452: A little-known specialty, automatic ticketing machines for car parking, airports, date stamping etc. The watch industry, for which Besançon remains the French capital, endured a major crisis in the 1970s when the advent of quartz watches from Asia knocked out the traditional watch industry in the space of just a few years. The "Lip" affair epitomizes the industrial crisis. LIP is to this day

469-404: A long time to recover from the collapse of the watch industry and its other major industry of the industrial age, artificial textiles. Since the 1980s, Besançon's watch industry has clawed its way back on the basis of its historic reputation and quartz watches, establishing itself in a number of niche markets including customized watches, high quality watches, and fashion articles. Since the 1990s,

536-434: A major centre of the watchmaking industry. The area has several cities at very high altitudes, such as La Chaux-de-Fonds , Le Locle and Sainte-Croix (renowned for its musical boxes ); however, it generally has had a marked decline in population since 1960. Both Le Locle and its geographical twin town La Chaux-de-Fonds are recognised as an UNESCO World Heritage Site for their horological and related cultural past. In

603-877: A private company built a funicular to the Brégille Heights. The funicular passed from private ownership to the SNCF , who finally closed it in 1987. The funicular's tracks, stations and even road signs remain in place to this day. Besançon is located in the north-east quarter of France on the river Doubs. It is about 325 kilometres (202 miles) east of the national capital of Paris, 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Dijon in Burgundy, 125 km (78 mi) northwest of Lausanne in Switzerland, and 100 km (62 mi) southwest of Belfort in Franche-Comté. It

670-563: 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

737-544: 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

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804-607: A southwest striation or fault of the Jura Mountains , flowing so over greater distance than the flow it has traced before. It then flows into the Saône at Verdun-sur-le-Doubs about 20 km (12 mi) northeast of Chalon-sur-Saône . The shape of the course resembles the silhouette of a terrier sitting upright, leaning right, with the upper part of a northeastern corner "ear" the only zone in Switzerland, there reaching Saint-Ursanne . In that country it borders or crosses

871-559: Is a barge canal that cuts through rock under Mont Saint-Étienne, short-cutting the meander.) Besançon has an oceanic climate ( Köppen : Cfb , Trewartha : Do ), with cool to cold winters, warm summers, and frequent precipitation year-round. The year-round average is 11.5 °C (53 °F). The warmest month is July with an average temperature of 20 °C (68 °F), and the coldest is January, with an average temperature of 2 °C (36 °F). Besançon receives about 1,059 mm (42 in) of precipitation per year. As of 2021,

938-526: Is also the seat of one of the fifteen French ecclesiastical provinces and one of the two divisions of the French Army . In 2021 the city had a population of 119,198, in a metropolitan area of 283,127, the second in the region in terms of population. Established in a meander of the river Doubs , the city was already important during the Gallo-Roman era under the name of Vesontio , capital of

1005-529: Is first recorded in 58 BC as Vesontio in Book I of Julius Caesar 's Commentarii de Bello Gallico . The etymology of Vesontio is uncertain. The most common explanation is that the name is of Celtic origin, derived from wes , meaning 'mountain'. During the 4th century, the letter B took the place of the V, and the city name changed to Besontio or Bisontion and then underwent several transformations to become Besançon in 1243. The city sits within an oxbow of

1072-570: Is located at the edge of the Jura Mountains . The city initially developed in a natural meander (or oxbow loop) of the river Doubs with a diameter of almost 1,000 metres (3,281 feet). The flat inner loop has an elevation of about 250 metres (820 feet), and is bounded to the south by a hill called Mont Saint-Étienne , which has a maximum height of 371 metres (1,217 feet). The city is surrounded by six other hills which range in elevation from 400 to 500 metres (1,312 to 1,640 feet): Brégille, Griffon, Planoise , Chaudanne, Montfaucon, and Montboucon. (There

1139-691: Is mentioned sixteen times in Stendhal's novel The Red and the Black ( Le rouge et le noir ). This article related to a river in France is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in Switzerland is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Besan%C3%A7on Besançon ( UK : / ˈ b ɛ z ən s ɒ n / , US : / b ə ˈ z æ n s ən / , French: [bəzɑ̃sɔ̃] , Franco-Provençal: [bəzɑ̃ˈsɔ̃] ; archaic German : Bisanz ; Latin : Vesontio )

1206-745: Is the Lägern , situated east of the river Aare. Much of the Swiss Jura region has no historical association with Early Modern Switzerland and was incorporated as part of the Swiss Confederacy only in the 19th century. In the 20th century, a movement for Jura separatism developed which resulted in the creation of the Canton of Jura in 1979. The east of the Jura range proper separates the Rhine and Rhône basins . The northern and eastern part of

1273-590: 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

1340-541: Is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté . The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerland . Capital of the historic and cultural region of Franche-Comté , Besançon is home to the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regional council headquarters, and is an important administrative centre in the region. It

1407-527: 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

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1474-701: The Arverni tribe and the Germanic Suebi tribe under the Germanic king Ariovistus . Julius Caesar , in his commentaries detailing his conquest of Gaul , describes Vesontio (possibly Latinized ), as the largest town of the Sequani , a smaller Gaulic tribe, and mentions that a wooden palisade surrounded it. It appears as Vesontine in the Tabula Peutingeriana . Over the centuries,

1541-741: The French department of Jura , the Swiss canton of Jura , the Jurassic period of the geologic timescale, and the Montes Jura of the Moon . It is first attested as mons Iura in book one of Julius Caesar 's Commentarii de Bello Gallico . Strabo uses a Greek masculine form ὁ Ἰόρας ("through the Jura mountains", διὰ τοῦ Ἰόρα ὄρους ) in his Geographica (4.6.11). Based on suggestions by Ferdinand de Saussure , early celticists such as Georges Dottin tried to establish an etymon "iura-, iuri" as

1608-618: The Haedui and their hereditary rivals, the Sequani . According to Strabo , the cause of the conflict was commercial. Each tribe claimed the Arar and the tolls on trade along it. The Sequani controlled access to the Rhine and had built an oppidum (a fortified town) at Vesontio to protect their interests. The Sequani defeated and massacred the Haedui at the Battle of Magetobriga , with the help of

1675-635: The Jura ridgeway , a 310 km (190 mi) hiking route. Several peaks feature observation towers (e.g. Faux d'Enson , Hage ). Tourist attractions in the Swiss Jura include natural features such as the Creux du Van , lookout peaks such as the Chasseral , caves such as the Grottes de Vallorbe , as well as gorges such as Taubenloch . The Swiss Jura has been industrialized since the 18th century and became

1742-499: The Sequani . Its geography and specific history turned it into a military stronghold, a garrison city, a political centre, and a religious capital. Besançon is the historical capital of watchmaking in France. This has led it to become a centre for innovative companies in the fields of microtechnology , micromechanics , and biomedical engineering . The University of Franche-Comté , founded in 1423, enrolls nearly 30,000 students each year, including around 4,000 trainees from all over

1809-518: The War of Devolution . Louis conquered the city for the first time in 1668, but the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle returned it to Spain within a matter of months. While it was in French hands, the famed military engineer Vauban visited the city and drew up plans for its fortification. The Spaniards built the main centre point of the city's defences, "la Citadelle", siting it on Mont Saint-Étienne, which closes

1876-524: 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,

1943-730: The Duke of Burgundy . As part of the Holy Roman Empire since 1034, the city became an archbishopric , and was designated the Free Imperial City of Besançon (an autonomous city-state under the Holy Roman Emperor ) in 1184. In 1157, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa held the Diet of Besançon . There, Cardinal Orlando Bandinelli (the future Pope Alexander III, then adviser of Pope Adrian IV ) openly asserted before

2010-593: The Emperor that the imperial dignity was a papal beneficium (in the more general sense of favour, not the strict feudal sense of fief ), which incurred the wrath of the German princes. He would have fallen on the spot under the battle-axe of his lifelong foe, Otto of Wittelsbach , had Frederick not intervened. The Archbishops were elevated to Princes of the Holy Roman Empire in 1288. The close connection to

2077-498: The Empire is reflected in the city's coat of arms. In 1290, after a century of fighting against the power of the archbishops, the Emperor granted Besançon its independence. In the 15th century, Besançon came under the influence of the dukes of Burgundy . After the marriage of Mary of Burgundy to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor , the city was in effect a Habsburg fief. In 1519 Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor , King of Spain , became

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2144-522: The French Jura, the 11th-century Fort de Joux , famously remodeled and strengthened by Vauban in 1690 and subsequently by other military engineers, is situated on a natural rock outcropping in the middle of the range not far from Pontarlier . Part of the A40 autoroute crosses through a portion of the southern Jura between Bourg-en-Bresse and Bellegarde-sur-Valserine , which is known as the "Highway of

2211-461: The Germans executed some one hundred French resistance fighters there. However, Besançon saw little action during the war. The allies bombed the railway complex in 1943, and the next year the Germans resisted the U.S. advance for four days. Besançon was also the location, between 1940 and 1941, of an Internment Camp ( Konzentrationslager ), Frontstalag 142 , also known as Caserne Vauban , which

2278-513: The Germans set up for 3–4,000 holders of British passports, all women and children. The conditions were harsh; many hundreds of internees died of pneumonia, diarrhea, food poisoning, dysentery, and frostbite. In 1959, the French Army turned the citadel over to the city of Besançon, which turned it into a museum. The forts of Brégille and Beauregard sit across the Doubs from the city. In 1913,

2345-468: The Holy Roman Emperor. This made him master of the Franche-Comté and Besançon, a francophone imperial city. In 1526 the city obtained the right to mint coins, which it continued to strike until 1673. Nevertheless, all coins bore the name of Charles V. When Charles V abdicated in 1555, he gave the Franche-Comté to his son, Philip II , King of Spain. Besançon remained a free imperial city under

2412-507: The Jura consists of a sequence of geologic folds, the formation of which is facilitated by an evaporitic decollement layer. The box folds are still relatively young, which is evident by the general shape of the landscape showing that they have not existed long enough to experience erosion , thus revealing recent mountain building. The Jura range offer a variety of tourist activities including hiking, cycling, downhill skiing and cross-country skiing. There are many signposted trails including

2479-492: 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

2546-746: The Saône ca. 140 km (87 mi) north of the French city of Lyon . In Lyon, the Saône joins the Rhône. While the Rhine flows into the North Sea , the Rhône flows into the Mediterranean Sea . Northeast, the Jura range proper (known as "folded Jura", Faltenjura ) is continued as the Table Jura ( Tafeljura ). The Table Jura ranges (from southwest to northeast) across the Swiss cantons of Basel-Landschaft , Aargau , and Schaffhausen ( Randen ), and

2613-526: The Swiss border of the canton of Geneva , and finds its southern terminus in the northwestern part of the department of Savoie . The north end of the Jura extends into the southern tip of Alsace ( Sundgau ). Roughly 1,600 km (600 sq mi) of the mountain range in France is protected by the Jura Mountains Regional Natural Park . The Swiss Jura is one of the three distinct geographical regions of Switzerland,

2680-792: The Université de Franche-Comté, is the first school created in the country specifically for the Biomedical engineering field. The city is also home of the École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et des Microtechniques (ENSMM), a technological school with a strong reputation in the fields of microtechnology and mechanics and the Centre for Applied Linguistics which teaches ten languages to non-native speakers (French, Arabic, Chinese, English, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish) and any other known language on request. The Centre welcomes more than 4,000 students every year from all over

2747-465: The cantons Jura and Neuchâtel . The falls known as the Saut du Doubs is on the French-Swiss border. Nearby, the river, dammed up by landslide debris, forms the 4-kilometre (2.5 mi) long, 200-metre (660 ft) wide, winding lake, (le) Lac des Brenets. The 27-metre (89 ft)-high Doubs Falls are at the lake's end. The falls can be reached on foot or by passenger boat. The Doubs flows through

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2814-610: The citadel's fortifications, and those of the city. This process lasted until 1711, some 30 years, and the walls built then surround the city. Between the train station and the central city there is a complex moat system that now serves road traffic. Numerous forts, some of which date back to that time and that incorporate Vauban's designs elements sit on the six hills that surround the city: Fort de Trois Châtels, Fort Chaudanne, Fort du Petit Chaudanne, Fort Griffon, Fort des Justices, Fort de Beauregard and Fort de Brégille . The citadel itself has two dry moats, with an outer and inner court. In

2881-692: 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. Most of the current fortification system ( citadel , defensive wall made up of ramparts and bastions , Fort Griffon)

2948-795: 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. Jura Mountains The Jura Mountains ( / ˈ dʒ ʊər ə , ˈ ʒ ʊər ə / JOOR -ə, ZHOOR -ə ) are

3015-411: The evenings, the illuminated Citadelle stands above the city as a landmark and a testament to Vauban's genius as a military engineer . In 1814, the Austrians invaded and bombarded the city. It also occupied an important position during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. In 1871, a project of Besançon Commune is engaged. The Nazis occupied the citadel during World War II . Between 1940 and 1944,

3082-546: The following Departments of France , Cantons of Switzerland , and cities: Tributaries include: The river forms several lakes: The rate of flow of the Doubs is very seasonally variable. The flooding or well-watered season can stretch from September to May, caused by heavy rains or by quick melting of snow from the Jura mountains . At its mouth, the discharge rate can vary from as low as 20 cubic metres per second (710 cu ft/s) to over 1,000 cubic metres per second (35,000 cu ft/s) during floods. In Besançon ,

3149-450: The largest floods have been in 1852 (8.5 metres or 27 feet 11 inches), in 1896 (7.96 metres or 26 feet 1 inch) and in 1910. As a mountain river with substantial discharge, the Doubs has been used for electricity generation. Among several hydroelectric stations, the most important are the Dam of Châtelot  [ fr ] , 74 metres (243 ft) tall, and the Dam of Refrain, 66.5 metres (218 ft) tall. The river

3216-463: 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. Fortifications prior to the French conquest are also numerous. The Tour de la Pelote, located on

3283-414: The name of one of Besançon's most prestigious brands of watches. Refusing to let their factory close, the workers set up a cooperative to run it. The action produced a lot of notoriety and sympathy for the workers but also resulted in branding Besançon as a city of the radical left. It also did nothing to help revive the watch industry; the cooperative went out of business a short while later. The city took

3350-423: The name permutated to become Besantio , Besontion , Bisanz in Middle High German , and gradually arrived at the modern French Besançon . The locals retain their ancient heritage referring to themselves as Bisontins (feminine: Bisontine ). It has been an archbishopric since the 4th century. In 843, the Treaty of Verdun divided up Charlemagne 's empire. Besançon became part of Lotharingia , under

3417-447: The neck of the oxbow that is the site of the original town. In their construction, the Spaniards followed Vauban's designs. In 1674, French troops recaptured the city, which the Treaty of Nijmegen (1678) then awarded to France. At this time the city became the administrative centre for the Franche-Comté, with its own Parlement of Besançon , which replaced Dole . As a result of control passing to France, Vauban returned to working on

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3484-544: 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. 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

3551-403: The others being the Swiss plateau and the Swiss Alps . Most of the range covers the western border with France. In Switzerland, the Jura Mountains extend over an area covering (from northeast to southwest) the cantons of Zurich , Aargau , Basel-Landschaft , Solothurn , Jura , Bern (i.e., Bernese Jura ), Neuchâtel , Vaud , and Geneva . The easternmost mountain of the Jura range proper

3618-424: The population of the City of Besançon was 119,198. It is the 33rd most populous city of France. Grand Besançon Métropole covers 528.6 km (204.1 sq mi), 68 municipalities and has a population of 197,494. The metropolitan area covers 2,514.5 km (970.9 sq mi), 310 municipalities and has 283,127 inhabitants. Its population increased by 4.9% between 2008 and 2020. Until 2016, Besançon

3685-425: The protection of the King of Spain. In 1598, Philip II gave the province to his daughter on her marriage to an Austrian archduke. It remained formally a portion of the Empire until its cession at the peace of Westphalia in 1648. Spain regained control of Franche-Comté and the city lost its status as a free city. Then in 1667, Louis XIV claimed the province as a consequence of his marriage to Marie-Thérèse of Spain in

3752-434: The range drains towards the Rhine river and its tributaries Aare and Ill , whereas the western and southern parts drain towards the Rhône river and its (sub)tributaries Doubs , Saône , and Ain . Initially the river Doubs (a subtributary of the Rhône) flows about 100 km (62 mi) northeast, briefly venturing into Switzerland, then changing direction and flowing about 170 km (110 mi) southwest before joining

3819-483: 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

3886-433: The regional offices of the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) or the Centre régional des œuvres universitaires et scolaires (Crous). Mayor of the City of Besançon is Anne Vignot ( The Greens ). The city is known for its microtechnology and watch industries. It is host of the biannual Micronora trade fair, one of Europe's major events in the field of microtechnologies. The city has

3953-409: The river Doubs (a tributary of the Saône ); a mountain closes the fourth side. During the Bronze Age , c. 1500 BC, tribes of Gauls settled the oxbow. From the 1st century BC through the modern era, the town had a significant military importance because the Alps rise abruptly to its immediate south, presenting a significant natural barrier. The Arar ( Saône ) River formed part of the border between

4020-432: The southern German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria (as Klettgau Jura, Baar Jura , and the Swabian and Franconian plateaus). The range is built up vertically while decreasing in size laterally (along a rough northwest–southeast line). This deformation accommodates the compression from alpine folding as the main Alpine orogenic front moves roughly northwards. The deformation becomes less pervasive away from

4087-402: The town has developed a reputation as one of France's leading centres of technology in all fields, including telecommunications and biotechnology. Besançon is the seat of the University of Franche-Comté . As of 2018 , there were approximately 24,000 students enrolled at the university, including around 3,000 foreign students. The Institut Supérieur d'Ingénieurs de Franche-Comté (ISIFC), part of

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4154-400: 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

4221-412: The world within its Centre for Applied Linguistics (CLA). The greenest city in France, it enjoys a quality of life recognized in Europe. Thanks to its rich historical and cultural heritage and its unique architecture, Besançon has been labeled a " Town of Art and History " since 1986. Its fortifications , designed by Vauban , have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008. The city

4288-410: The world. As well as being famed as one of France's finest "villes d'art" (art cities), Besançon is the seat of one of France's older universities, of France's National School of Mechanics and Micromechanics , and one of the best known French language schools in France, the CLA. The most historic center of the town is characterised by the broad horse-shoe of the river Doubs, "la Boucle", which encircles

4355-508: The younger, more active Alpine mountain building. The geologic folds comprise three major bands ( lithological units) of building that date from three epochs : the Lias ( Early Jurassic ), the Dogger ( Middle Jurassic ) and the Malm ( Late Jurassic ) geologic periods . Each era of folding reveals effects of previously shallow marine environments as evidenced by beds with carbonate sequences, containing abundant bioclasts and oolitic divisions between layers (called horizons). Structurally,

4422-431: 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,

4489-455: Was the capital of the Franche-Comté administrative région of France, a région including the four départements of Doubs, Haute-Saône , Jura and Territoire de Belfort . Franche-Comté was since merged with the neighbouring region of Burgundy , and the "préfecture" was transferred to the city of Dijon . However, Besançon remains the seat of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regional council and of various decentralised administrations such as

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