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 consists of six exhibition halls with a total area of 175^m2, dedicated to major themes that help visitors better understand the concept of biodiversity and the issues surrounding it:

Room 1:
Diversity of Life: What Is Biodiversity?
Room 2:
Classifications and Relationships Among Species: Are They 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

Botany

Geology

Entomology and Malacology

Zoology

History and Pedagogy of Science

Art and Ethnography

The Missions of the Natural History Museum

The Besançon Museum is, first and foremost, a Musée de France: tasked with preserving more than one 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 the aim of passing it on to future generations. Its historical collections now form the basis of 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—digital projects (such as the RéColNat portal) help make them more widely accessible. It regularly collaborates on projects with scientific and cultural institutions in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and the Jura Arc;
Through science outreach and by raising visitors’ awareness of environmental stewardship and biodiversity conservation—serving as a gateway to understanding life and its evolution—its educators carry out their work on a daily basis in close collaboration with institutions (such as the Ministry of Education and museums) as well as nonprofit organizations (including the network for environmental and sustainable development education).