Where to Stay in Besançon, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté

What is Besançon known for?

Besançon is known for the great Citadel of Besançon crowning the ridge above the old town. Watchmaking made the second name, told now in the Time museum. Roman Vesontio still shows through at Square Castan.

Add the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Besançon and the Église de la Madeleine, and the older city is drawn.

What are the main landmarks in Besançon?

Besançon reads from the ridge down. The Citadel of Besançon crowns the height above the old town, with the Time museum and the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Besançon below in the centre. Roman Vesontio surfaces at Square Castan.

Churches mark the quarters, the Église de la Madeleine and the Église Saint-Pierre in the core, the Basilica of Saint-Ferjeux out on its own hill, while the Maison espagnole keeps the Renaissance grain of the streets.

What is the history of Besançon?

Besançon began as Vesontio, the Gallo-Roman town whose theatre columns still stand at Square Castan. Geography made it a fortress. The old centre sits in a tight loop of high ground, and for two thousand years that natural bend has been walled, watched, and fought over, its defence finally perfected in the great Citadel of Besançon that Vauban raised on the ridge above the town.

The Roman domus buried under the modern streets, uncovered in digs across the centre, record the depth of the city beneath the medieval one. In the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance the town grew rich, and stone houses like the Maison espagnole and the Maison Brigonnet went up along its lanes, while a ring of old towers, the Tour Notre-Dame and the Tour de Rivotte among them, marked the walls. Watchmaking gave Besançon its modern trade, the craft gathered into the Time museum.

Across the water, the Battant quarter grew the vines that fed the town for century after century. The city is a braid of Roman fort, walled loop, and clockmakers' town.

Where is Besançon?

Besançon lies in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, a principal city of the region. Hills wrap it close. The old town fills a tight loop of low ground below the ridge that carries the Citadel of Besançon, while the Battant quarter climbs the slope across the water.

The Basilica of Saint-Ferjeux stands apart on its own hill west of the centre.

What is the climate of Besançon?

Besançon has a cooler, wetter climate than much of France, set in the hill country of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Winters bite. Cold, damp spells and hard frost are common in the sheltered hollow the old town sits in, and snow settles on the ridge around the Citadel of Besançon more often than on the western plains.

Summers are warm and green, rain spread across the year. The hills hold the weather in.

How do you get to Besançon?

Besançon sits on the rail routes crossing Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, and most visitors come by train. Two stations serve it, one in the valley near the old town, one on the high-speed line out on the plateau. Buses link the two.

From the central station the old town below the Citadel of Besançon is a short walk, and once inside it the museums, the Église Saint-Pierre, and Square Castan all sit close enough to cross on foot.