Children's groups

Discover the characteristics of a bastioned fortification, the work and career of Vauban, and the roles of the Citadel, from its construction to its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Designed as a real journey around the world, the Patrimonium board game is played around general knowledge questions and expression activities. The aim is to discover UNESCO, the monuments, natural sites, and traditions listed on the World Heritage List, and more specifically the Citadel of Besançon.

An educational file can be downloaded from the website.

This workshop invites students to become historians: deciphering texts, searching for details in a map, cross-checking information... A real investigation to learn more about Vauban and the citadel.

From its construction to the daily life of soldiers, including its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List, this tour offers an optimal discovery of Vauban's masterpiece, including a visit to two underground galleries.

In our reconstruction of a soldiers' barracks, students will discover daily life in the 17th century and compare it to our lives today through a variety of fun activities. It's the perfect way to start learning about history!

This tour is an opportunity to understand how life was organized in the Citadel in the 17th century and what the tasks of its occupants were. Throughout a tour designed by the children themselves, they are given objects related to the daily life of soldiers. At the end of the tour, they return them and explain the role they played.

Activity offered to visitors with disabilities (blind and visually impaired, intellectually disabled). A sensory tour (outdoors and/or indoors) to discover the secrets of the citadel: building materials, architecture, inscriptions, etc.

This stone citadel hides more greenery than you might think. From the hilly landscape to the interior gardens and the now-defunct nursery, discover a citadel that has been covered in vegetation since the 17th century.

Behind its stones, the citadel hides water resources and needs. Discover the different uses that were made of it during Vauban's time.

What does this strange word mean? It is a method used to date wood by measuring its growth rings. During this workshop, students become dendrochronologists by handling wood cores and light tables!

Louis Fabry de Montcault, governor of the citadel, welcomes you to his fortress: he will reveal how daily life is organized for the 600 soldiers and cadets (officer trainees) under his command.

Difficult visit for people who have difficulty walking and standing.

Starting in April 2026

"Vauban" shares his knowledge and passion for the history and architecture of the Citadel with your students.

Difficult visit for people who have difficulty walking and standing.

Vauban was an engineer and soldier... but that's not all! Discover a more philosophical, reformist, and modern side to Vauban. As you tour the citadel and explore his writings, you'll gain a new perspective on this unique figure from the Grand Siècle.

A quick but intense dive into the history of the Citadel, covering the key stages from its construction to its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

In the past, there was no electricity... In the past, there were no screens! Gathering around the fire was a precious moment to share stories about the day and pass on amazing tales to those around you. This workshop tour invites you to meet the Vouivre and other creatures from Franche-Comté!

Locations: Comtois Museum and educational room

Cultural exchanges, changing customs, material transformations... How did we go from split-crotch pants to boxer shorts, from coffee grinders to capsule machines? Discover the great stories behind everyday objects!

Places: Comtois Museum

Freedom of expression is the foundation of any democracy. From Alfred Jarry to Tomy Ungerer, via anti-fascist songs and the Nativity, come and discover the surprising history of Besançon puppets, which have left their mark on Franche-Comté from the French Revolution to the present day. This tour is an invitation to discover the world of puppets, which, long before television puppets, combined critical thinking, citizenship, commitment, and humor.

Location: Comtois Museum

As the exhibition rooms cannot accommodate an entire class, the museum offers a workshop tour led by two mediators: while the^first group tours the museum, the second participates in a workshop.

Visit: Discover the history of World War II, the Resistance, and deportation through the museum's collections and immerse yourself in the daily life of the French people in the early 1940s.

Workshop: How can we grasp the impact of World War II on the scale of a lifetime? How can we cope with the upheavals of everyday life? How can we keep in mind that, for those living at the time, the future was not written? Delve into Jeanne Oudot's personal diary and discover, page after page, how small and large-scale history resonate.

As the exhibition rooms cannot accommodate an entire class, the museum offers a workshop tour led by two mediators: while the first group tours the museum, the second participates in a workshop.

Visit: Discover the history of World War II, the Resistance, and deportation through the museum's collections and immerse yourself in the daily life of the French people in the early 1940s.

Workshop: 1933-1945. Twelve years were enough to exterminate nearly 6 million Jewish women, men, and children. In occupied Europe, what means and tools did the Nazis and the collaborationist Vichy government use to implement their anti-Semitic policies? Using various archives, students discover life stories confronted with exclusion laws and the genocidal process. Faced with the violence of persecution, women and men risked their lives and committed themselves to helping and saving Jews from extermination.

As the exhibition rooms cannot accommodate an entire class, the museum offers a workshop tour led by two mediators: while the^first group tours the museum, the second participates in a workshop.

Visit: Discover the history of World War II, the Resistance, and deportation through the museum's collections and immerse yourself in the daily life of the French people in the early 1940s.

Workshop: What can you do in a country at war where daily life is difficult? Why and how do people get involved? What are the different forms of involvement? Using a selection of examples, delve into the complexity of war to discover the links between the Resistance and society.

As the exhibition rooms cannot accommodate an entire class, the museum offers a workshop tour led by two mediators: while the^first group tours the museum, the second participates in a workshop.

Visit: Discover the museum's treasure trove of collections, the art collection from deportation, and immerse yourself in the daily lives of these artists who drew at the risk of their lives.

Workshop: Why did some deportees draw in Nazi prisons and camps? How did they manage to find the necessary materials? This is an opportunity to reflect on these drawings, which are so essential to understanding history.

As the exhibition rooms cannot accommodate an entire class, the museum offers a workshop tour led by two mediators: while the^first group tours the museum, the second participates in a workshop.

Visit: Discover the history of World War II, the Resistance, and deportation through the museum's collections and immerse yourself in the daily life of the French people in the early 1940s.

Workshop: How to read a poster, how to decode an image? How to perceive the messages they convey? Through a decoding exercise, students examine how Vichy uses images and words to spread its ideology.

What is biodiversity for? How does it work? The "Biodiv' en scène" workshop allows participants to discover or better understand the concept of "biodiversity." Using tools adapted for young and old alike, the group learns in a simple, concrete, and fun way about the importance of preserving the richest possible biodiversity!
Locations: Educational room and animal areas

Our beautiful planet is teeming with millions of life forms! But how do scientists today make sense of all this diversity? During this activity, students will discover the principle of nested classification by observing the animals in the animal enclosures. Throughout the workshop, they will learn how this method can be applied to the millions of known species and what it reveals about the relationships between them.

Animal enclosures and educational room

Students discover a selection of fossils from the Jurassic period... and the Jurassic era! By observing and handling these relics from the past, they learn to recognize different species and group them according to their common characteristics. The "Fossils in Bulk" workshop offers a fun introduction to the principles of scientific classification and reconstructs the past environments of our region.

Locations: Teaching room

Thanks to our story mat, "The Adventures of Léon the Butterfly" come to life before the children's amazed eyes. The story is followed by fun activities to help them get to know our six-legged heroes better. It's also an opportunity to observe live specimens up close!
Location: Educational room

A special moment when a science mediator allows children to meet some of the Insectarium's residents. This activity allows them to discover the abundant world of arthropods, their biology, their mode of reproduction and growth, their defense techniques, and their roles in nature.

Location: Insectarium kitchen

Based on an idea from the University and Zoological Museum of Lausanne, this game helps students understand the mechanisms of evolution. Made from modeling clay, the Mougs evolve from generation to generation. Hair, hands, or feathers—let chance guide you as you create strange creatures. Which one will be best suited to survive?

Locations: Teaching room

Fun activity for people with disabilities. The group discovers the diversity of the living world through an interactive and sensory workshop exploring the collections of the Natural History Museum and the animals in the animal enclosures.
Location: Educational room
Workshop exclusively for people with disabilities
Please feel free to contact our teams so that we can work together to find the best way to adapt this workshop to the specific disability.

A guided tour of the Naturalium to get a glimpse of the Museum's collections and discover nature in all its forms. What is a living being? Are we superior to other species? What is biodiversity and what threats does it face? And above all, what is the place of humans in all this?
Location: Naturalium

Borrow vivariums and discover the daily life of our tiny neighbors.
The Besançon Museum offers vivariums on loan for school classes.
This will allow you to observe and study insects and gastropods with your students.

• Species offered(breeding sheet sent upon confirmation of reservation):

– the house cricket,

– the Migratory Locust,

– the rose chafer beetle,

– the stick insect,

– Achatina (the only species for which the loan period is a maximum of 2 weeks).

• Pickup and return policy:
  At the Citadel reception desk on Wednesdays from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM (pickup) and Wednesdays from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM (return).
• Download the vivarium loan agreement
• Reservations are required at 03 81 87 83 33 or contact@citadelle.besancon.fr.

Borrow the educational kit one of our five workshops designed to help you understand biodiversity:

• Insect stories
• Biodiversity on stage
• Run for your life
• It's in the bag
• Bio-debate

Reservations required at 03 81 87 83 33 or contact@citadelle.besancon.fr

Students learn in a fun way about the threats facing wildlife and the conservation measures put in place to prevent their extinction. Playing a board game, they take on the roles of different species from Southeast Asia in their race for survival. The workshop is followed by a visit to the animal enclosures to meet the animals.
Locations: Educational room and animal enclosures

Through this Kamishibai story, the group discovers the true story of a lynx from Haut-Doubs. It is an opportunity to learn more about the history of the Eurasian lynx in France, from its disappearance to its gradual return in the 1970s. How is the lynx doing today? What threatens it and what solutions are being implemented to save it?

Location: Teaching room 

The Little Farm is the ideal place to introduce young children to the animal world. Through contact with furry and feathered animals, children learn to distinguish between mammals and birds, domestic animals and wild animals, and discover the role of these animals on the farm.
Location: Little Farm