Unité urbaine de Besançon

Location Quiz Nearby Places Données générales Composition 2020 de l'unité urbaine Évolution démographique Références

L'unité urbaine de Besançon est une unité urbaine française centrée sur la ville de Besançon, préfecture et principale ville du département du Doubs, en région Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Elle fait partie de la catégorie des grandes agglomérations urbaines de la France, c'est-à-dire ayant plus de 100 000 habitants.

Location

1 explorer visited this place

Nearby Places

Battle of Besançon

The Battle of Besançon was a sectarian conflict between the Protestants and Catholics in the French city of Besançon in the region of Franche-Comté. Prior to the battle, the Huguenots, accused of heresy, had been expelled from the city and fled to the County of Montbéliard and Switzerland; the outcasts formed an army and planned an attempt to retake Besançon and turn the city into a stronghold of the Protestant Reformation. By the time the armed Protestants had reached the city of Besançon however, their army had dwindled because of several mishaps. Nonetheless, the battle began and raged for several hours; the outcome was an overwhelming Catholic victory. The majority of the Protestant army managed to escape, but those who were captured were hanged as traitors. For over two centuries after the battle, Protestantism in Besançon was repressed.

Historic Site Landmark

Siege of Besançon

The siege of Besançon took place from 25 April to 22 May 1674 during the Franco-Dutch War, when French forces nominally led by Louis XIV of France invaded Franche-Comté, then part of the Spanish Empire. Siege works were supervised by the duc d'Enghien, eldest son of le Grand Condé, and French military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban. The defenders were commanded by Vaudémont but the town's isolated position meant they could only delay capture. The bulk of French casualties were caused by a botched assault, allegedly launched to impress Louis, before the garrison surrendered and were allowed free passage to the Spanish Netherlands. Under the 1678 Treaties of Nijmegen, the province was annexed by France and Besançon replaced Dole as the regional capital.

Historic Site Landmark

Marie and Louis Pasteur University

The Marie and Louis Pasteur University, formerly known as University of Franche-Comté, is a pluridisciplinary public French university located in Besançon, Franche-Comté, with decentralized campuses in Belfort, Montbéliard, Vesoul and Lons-le-Saunier. With 28 research labs, 667 PhD students and 788 research professors in 2016–2017, the Marie and Louis Pasteur University is well represented in the research community. It collaborates with many organizations. It has about 29,000 students, including nearly a third of scholarship students and 12% of foreign students. Its Centre for Applied Linguistics is one of the world's leading schools for teaching French as a foreign language and French linguistics.

School University

Temple of the Holy Spirit, Besançon

The Temple du Saint-Esprit is a protestant parish located in Besançon, Franche-Comté. The parish is a member of the United Protestant Church of France. The building and its outbuildings were constructed from the 13th century onward and were dedicated to caring for the sick and needy until the eve of the French Revolution. They were acquired in 1842 by the local Reformed community, which reappeared in 1792 after more than two hundred years of prohibition. The architecture and decoration, blending the original Gothic with the 19th-century Troubadour style and Neo-Romanesque, remarkable in their execution and refinement, were classified as a Historic Monument in 1932. Still open for services and visits, the site symbolizes, like the synagogue on Quai Veil-Picard, the longstanding and still vibrant presence of this religious minority.

Church Historic Site

Synagogue of Besançon

The Synagogue of Besançon is a Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 23 Quai de Strasbourg, in the Battant area, near the old part of town, in the city of Besançon, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of France. The stone synagogue was built in 1869 and was inaugurated on 18 November. A Jewish community formed in Free Imperial City of Besançon in the 14th century, after the expulsion of Jews from the Kingdom of France, but was forced to leave shortly thereafter. It did not reestablish itself until shortly after the French Revolution, in 1807. The congregation built its first synagogue on Rue de la Madeleine, in the Battant district in 1831. However, it proved too small for the growing congregation. An Imperial Decree dated 22 May 1867 authorized the community to acquire land on the Quai Napoléon. The community then entrusted the local architect Pierre Marnotte with the commission to design a building "in the Moroccan style". The building was listed as a monument historiques on 16 November 1984.

Historic Site Landmark

More nearby places... Discovery

Données générales

Dans le zonage réalisé par l'Insee en 1999, l'unité urbaine était composée de onze communes, toutes situées dans le département du Doubs, plus précisément dans l'arrondissement de Besançon. Dans le zonage réalisé en 2010, l'unité urbaine était composée des onze mêmes communes. Dans le nouveau zonage réalisé en 2020, l'unité urbaine est composée de treize communes, celles de Montfaucon et Morre ayant été ajoutées au périmètre. En 2023, avec 140 404 habitants, elle constitue l'unité urbaine la plus peuplée du département du Doubs, devançant celle de Montbéliard qui occupe le second rang départemental. En Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, elle occupe le deuxième rang régional, se situant derrière l'unité urbaine de Dijon et devant l'unité urbaine de Montbéliard, formant toutes trois les seules agglomérations de la région à rassembler plus de 100 000 habitants. Sa densité de population, qui s'élève à 1 052 hab/km2, en fait une unité urbaine densément peuplée aussi bien dans le département du Doubs que dans la région Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Par sa superficie, elle ne représente que 2,58 % du territoire départemental, mais elle regroupe 25,89 % (un quart) de la population du département du Doubs en 2022.