Muséum de Besançon, Natural history museum and zoological park in Citadelle, Besançon, France.

The Muséum de Besançon is a natural history museum and zoological park spread across a large site within the Citadelle, featuring different sections such as an aquarium, insectarium, and zoo with numerous animals. The facility provides habitats for creatures and displays natural history objects across organized exhibition areas.

Created in 1943, the Muséum de Besançon was installed in the Citadelle in 1959 on the initiative of mayor Jean Minjoz. It joined the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria in 1998, the year it committed to conserving threatened species. Its aquarium opened in the Petit Arsenal in 1975 and was redesigned in 1995.

The name "muséum" follows the French tradition for natural history institutions, as at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. The site is organised into six spaces: the Jardin zoologique, the P'tite ferme, the Insectarium, the Aquarium, the Noctarium and the Parcours de l'évolution. In the Insectarium, housed in the Citadelle's former arsenal, vivariums sit inside open "books" over two metres tall.

The six spaces are scattered inside the Citadelle: the zoo occupies about a quarter of the grounds, the Insectarium sits in the former arsenal, the Noctarium in the old powder magazine of the Front de Secours, and the aquarium in the Petit arsenal since 1975. Allow time to move between them, and give your eyes a few minutes to adjust in the darkened Noctarium before the small mammals appear.

The Noctarium occupies the former powder magazine of the Front de Secours, where the day-night cycle is reversed so visitors can watch French nocturnal mammals such as the garden dormouse, grey dormouse and harvest mouse. The Insectarium, housed in the old arsenal, sets its vivariums inside open "books" over two metres tall.