Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The funicular of Bregille, designed by industrialist Émile Picard in 1899, was designed to connect the city centre of Besançon to the plateau of Bregille to facilitate access to the green spaces by the curators. Despite promising beginnings in 1912, its exploitation was marked by financial difficulties, notably after Picard's death in 1931 and the decline in thermalism.

The line, bought by the municipality in 1942, experienced a golden age in the 1950s with more than 200,000 annual travellers. However, attendance declined from the 1970s due to car competition. Closed in 1987 for technical and financial reasons, the funicular was included in the Historical Monuments in 2011.

Since 2005, the Association Les Amis du Funicule de Besançon has been working for its rehabilitation. In 2022, a technical study was launched to assess the costs of re-entry, with the support of the City and the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region. The restored Bass Station is now open to the public during Heritage Days.

The funicular, 423 metres long with a 73-metre elevation, was equipped with wooden cars rebuilt in 1981. Its unique route included an Abt avoidance and an unguarded crossing, a rarity in France. The machinery, still in place, dates back to 1938 and was manufactured by the Swiss Louis de Roll establishments.

Picard's initial project, modified in 1905 to include a tramway, was eventually reduced to a pure funicular due to technical constraints. The line played a key role in the urbanization of Bregille, but its decline accelerated with the disaffection of the thermal baths and the rise of the automobile.

Today, the funicular remains a symbol of the bisontin industrial heritage. Its registration in 2011 and the efforts of the local association aim to preserve this unique testimony of the history of transport in Franche-Comté, while considering a tourism reopening.

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