Granvelle palace, Renaissance palace in Besançon, France

Granvelle Palace is a 16th-century Renaissance palace on the Grande Rue in Besançon, built of pale ashlar stone. Its main facade has three levels and five bays, with a steep tiled roof pierced by three Gothic dormers. Four wings enclose an inner courtyard reached by two passages, with basket-handle arcades, a gallery above and a fountain at the centre; the ceremonial staircase occupies a square tower topped by an oratory.

Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle, keeper of the seals and first adviser to Emperor Charles V, built the palace on the Grande Rue between 1534 and 1547. After Louis XIV's second conquest of Franche-Comté it became the residence of the provincial governor; the Duke of Tallard installed a theatre there in 1740 and the academy of sciences, letters and arts in 1752. Sold as national property during the Revolution, it was bought back by the city in 1864 and restored in 2002.

The palace holds the Museum of Time, where visitors can see historic clocks, watches, and timekeeping instruments from the region. Besançon was once the heart of French watchmaking, and that story runs through every room of the collection.

The palace is in the center of Besançon and easy to reach on foot from most of the old town. The courtyard can often be visited without entering the museum, so it is worth stopping by even on a short visit.

The palace's 17th-century fireplace, with its armorial cast-iron plaque, has been separately listed as a monument historique since 26 January 1928, distinct from the building's 1862 classification. The Granvelle family's collections of paintings, antiquities and books were dispersed by the end of the 16th century; part of them formed the original holdings of Besançon's municipal library and museum of fine arts.