page_title: Besançon
section_title: Neighborhoods
hierarchical_section_title: Besançon / Geography / Neighborhoods
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Besançon (Doubs - France), place de la 1ère Armée Française, 2 - Cour de l'ancien hôtel de ville (1393) remodelé et agrandi entre 1569 et 1573 par l'architecte Richard Maire.
context_page_description: Besançon is the capital of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerland.
  Capital of the historic and cultural region of Franche-Comté, Besançon is home to the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regional council headquarters, and is an important administrative centre in the region. It is also the seat of one of the fifteen French ecclesiastical provinces and one of the two divisions of the French Army.
  In 2017 the city had a population of 115,934, in a metropolitan area of 251,700, the second in the region in terms of population.
  Established in a meander of the Doubs river, the city was already important during the Gallo-Roman era under the name of Vesontio, capital of the Sequani. Its geography and specific history turned it into a military stronghold, a garrison city, a political center, and a religious capital.
  Besançon is the historical capital of watchmaking in France. This has led it to become a center for innovative companies in the fields of microtechnology, micromechanics, and biomedical engineering.
context_section_description: La Boucle
  Battant
  Bregille
  Les Clairs-Soleils
  Velotte
  La Butte
  Les Chaprais
  Palente
  Les Tilleroyes
  Montrapon
  Planoise
  Saint-Claude
  Saint-Ferjeux
  Chailluz
caption: Courtyard of the former city hall
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