The astronomical clock was commissioned by J.L.Bizot, a councillor to the bailiwick of Besançonwho was passionate about astronomy, mathematics and time sciences. It was made in 1860 by Auguste-Lucien Vérité, a clockmaker at Beauvais.
Though modelled on them, it is radically different from the astronomical clocks found at Strasbourg, Lyon and Beauvais. It took six months to carry out the studies for the project and two and a half years to make. It is in perfect working order and composed of two different parts, automata of a religious nature and 77 time measurement dials with real-time indications for twelve different places around the world.
The clock shows the day, month, year, the length of dayand night, the time of sunset and sunrise, the tides, and so on. Two astronomical dials indicate solar and lunar eclipses, whilst others show the phases of the moon and the time when it passes over the meridian at Besançon.
The clock is colourfully decorated with signs of the zodiac. One particularity setting it apart from other astronomical clocks is that it drives five other dials not present in the room where it is installed. One of these is to be found inside the cathedral and indicates the phases of the moon and the planet associated with the day of the week. Four other dials on the outside of the bell tower act as public clocks for the upper parts of the town centre. The planetary dial is placed on the lower part of the bell tower and shows the Copernican system. The sun is placed at the centre with six planets moving around it – Mercury, Venus, the Earth and Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.They all take the same time to move around the sun as the planets actually do. Uranus and Neptune are not represented as they lie too far away from the sun. Pluto, which is even further away, was not known at the time the clock was made in 1860, only being discovered in 1930.
Visitor information
Centre des monuments nationaux - Horloge astronomique de la Cathédrale de Besançon
Rue du Chapitre
25 000 Besançon
Tel. 03 81 81 12 76
www.horloge-besancon.monuments-nationaux.fr
Opening times
Open
1 April to 30 September, every day except Tuesday
1 October to 31 March, every day except Tuesday and Wednesday
visits at 9.50 am, 10.50 am, 11.50 am, 2.50 pm, 3.50 pm, 4.30 pm, and 5.50 pm
Closed
In January
1 May, 1 and 11 November, 25 December
Prices
Full rate: €3
Reduced rate: €2.50
Adult groups: €2.80 (parties of over 20 people)
School parties: €20 (35 pupils maximum with 2 accompanying adults included; for any additional accompanying adults the "adult group" rate applies)
Free entry:
For under-18s (accompanied by an adult)
18 to 25 year-olds (from the 27 EU member states and regular non-EU residents living on French soil)
Disabled persons and their accompanying adult
Jobseekers on presentation of proof dating from the past 6 months
Getting there
From the A36 (Beaune-Mulhouse), take exit number 4 for Besançontown centre.
