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BesanonBesanon is a French city and commune, in the dpartement of Doubs, of which it is the prfecture. Population (1999): 122,308. Administration Besanon is the capital of the Franche-Comt rgion of France, a rgion including the four dpartements of Doubs, Haute-Sane, Jura and Territoire de Belfort. As such, it is the seat of the Franche-Comt regional council, and the regional prfecture (government offices). History Its Latin name was Vesontio. The city's fortifications were upgraded by Vauban. Sights The city is renowned for having one of the most beautiful historic centres of any major town in France. The old town, "la Boucle", is enclosed in a broad horse-shoe of the river Doubs, which is blocked off at the neck by Vauban's imposing Citadelle. The historic centre has little in the way of unseemly modern architecture, and presents a remarkable ensemble of classic stone buildings, some dating back to the Middle Ages. Among the most visited historic monuments are: - the 16th century Palais Granvelle, built by Cardinal Granvelle, chancellor to the Habsburg emperor Charles V
- Vauban's citadel and remarkable riverside frontage
- the St. Jean cathedral, dating largely from the 12th century
- several Roman remains, notably the Porte Noire, a triumphal arch.
Besanon also has one of the finest city art galleries in France outside Paris. The Muse des Beaux Arts has a collection built up since 1694, and expanded over time by a remarkable series of bequests. The building itself was totally rebuilt in the 1960s by the architect Miquel, a pupil of Le Corbusier, its interior taking the form of a gently rising concrete walkway that takes visitors up from classical antiquity to the modern age. Among its treasures are a fine collection of classical antiquities and ancient Egyptian artefacts, as well as a very rich collection of paintings including works by Bellini, Bronzino, Tintoretto, Titian, Rubens, Jordaens, Ruysdael, Cranach, Zurbaran, Goya, Philippe de Champaigne, Fragonard, Boucher, David, Ingres, Gricault, Courbet, Constable, Bonnard, Matisse and many others. Perhaps the most remarkable of the city's masterpieces is the massive Virgin and saints altarpiece in the St. Jean cathedral, by the Italian Renaissance painter Fra Bartolomeo. Economy The city is famous for its microtechnology and watch industries. It is home to the biannual Micronora trade fair, one of Europe's major events in the field of microtechnologies. The city has a little-known speciality, automatic ticketing machines for car parking, airports, date stamping etc. The watch industry, for which Besanon remains the French capital, endured a major crisis in the 1970s when the advent of far-eastern quartz watches knocked out the traditional watch industry in the space of just a few years. This industrial crisis was epitomised by the famous "Lip" affair, by the name of one of Besanon's most prestigious brands of watches. Refusing to be beaten, the workers of Lip took over their factory and set it up as a worker's cooperative. The event branded Besanon as a city of the radical left, and though it produced a lot of notoriety and sympathy for the workers, it did little to help revive the watch industry, the cooperative going out of business after a short period. The city took 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, Besanon'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, the town has been developing a reputation as one of France's leading centres for microtechnology in all fields, including telecommunications, medical technology, and components. Transportation Besanon is situated at the crossing of two major lines of communication, the NE-SW route, following the valley of the river Doubs, and linking Germany and North Europe with Lyon and southwest Europe, and the N-S route linking northern France and the Low Countries with Switzerland. A key staging post on the Strasbourg-Lyon (Germany-Spain) route, it also has direct high-speed train (TGV) links with Paris, Charles de Gaulle International Airport, and Lille. Unusually for a town of its size, it does not have a commercial airport, though two international airports, EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg and Lyon Saint-Exupry International Airport, can be reached in about 2 hours. Miscellaneous As well as being famed as one of France's finest "villes d'art" (art cities), Besanon is the seat of one of France's older universities, of France's national school of micromechanics, and one of the best known French language schools in France, the CLA. It is also reputed to be France's most environmentally-friendly city, with a public transport network that has often been cited as a model. On account of the topography, the historic city centre lies at the edge of the modern city, and hiking tracks lead straight from the centre and up into the surrounding hills. The city council has been in the hands of the Socialists and parties of the left since the second world war. Births Besanon was the birthplace of: Twin towns External links
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