The Besançon Museum Natural History Museum
The Naturalium
Located in the heart of the Besançon Citadel, on the ground floor of what was once the officers’ quarters during Vauban’s time, the Naturalium comprises six exhibition halls covering a total area of 175square meters, each dedicated to key themes that help visitors better understand the concept of biodiversity and the challenges it faces:
- Room 1:
Diversity of Life: What Is Biodiversity? - Room 2:
Classifications and kinship among species: all related, yet all different? - Room 3:
The Drivers of Biodiversity: Why and How Is It Changing? - Room 4:
The Balance of Ecosystems: One Balance, or Many? - Room 5:
Small actions, big impact: threats to biodiversity. - Room 6:
The History of Biodiversity and Science in Question:
Biodiversity research today.
Collection Overview
The missions of the Natural History Museum
The Besançon Museum is first and foremost a Musée de France: responsible for preserving more than a million specimens in its collections, it contributes to research, the dissemination of knowledge, and the promotion of the scientific and natural heritage in its care, with a view to passing it on to future generations. Its historical collections now feed into databases that provide a better understanding of the evolution of geodiversity as well as animal and plant biodiversity.
Finally, it is a unique institution, both because of its close historical ties to the University of Franche-Comté and because of the wide variety of fields it encompasses (botany, geology, paleontology, entomology, osteology, the history of science and science education, and more).
All these treasures make it a place:
- Conservation, study, and research, in close collaboration with teachers, researchers, and volunteers (who actively contribute to the preservation and understanding of its heritage herbariums, for example);
- Promoting its collections: although the Museum currently exhibits only a tiny fraction of its collections—sometimes due to their fragility—their accessibility is enhanced through digital initiatives (such as the RéColNat portal). It regularly collaborates on projects with scientific and cultural institutions in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and the Jura region;
- Through science outreach and efforts to raise visitors’ awareness of environmental stewardship and biodiversity conservation—serving as a gateway to understanding life and its evolution—its staff work closely on a daily basis with government agencies (such as the Department of Education and museums) as well as nonprofit organizations (including networks dedicated to environmental education and sustainable development).