Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology of Besançon


The musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie in the French city of Besançon is the oldest public museum in France. It was set up in 1694, nearly a century before the Louvre became a public museum.

Collections

The collections of the musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Besançon are divided in three categories: archaeology, painting, and drawing cabinet.

Archaeology

The collections shows the main tendencies and evolutions of European art from the 14th to 20th centuries:
The collections of the museum mostly originated in four gifts. In 1694, Abbot Boisot gave his collection to the town's Benedictine monks, on the condition that the public had access to these collections twice a week. This bibliothèque-musée Boisot lasted for the whole of the 18th century. In 1819 Pierre-Adrien Pâris, the King's architect, added his collection. Jean Gigoux gave the museum his collection in 1894, and finally George Besson and his wife gave the museum their collection in 1960.

Building

Since 1843, the museum has been located in a former grain hall, in the center of the town. The building became too small following Besson's donation, it was rebuilt from 1967 to 1970 by Louis Miquel, a student of Le Corbusier. The interior courtyard was covered with a concrete structure.
The museum was renovated from 2014 to 2018. It was inaugurated on 16 November 2018 by the French President Emmanuel Macron.