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Origin and history

The house in No. 2 of the Place du Huit-Septembre (formerly Place Saint-Pierre) in Besançon was built in the 18th century as part of an ambitious urban project. In 1787, the architect Claude-Joseph-Alexandre Bertrand regulated the right side of this square after the reconstruction of Saint Peter's church, completed around 1786. To do so, he demolished two existing houses and replaced them with three buildings, one of which was aligned behind an ordered façade. The French Revolution, however, interrupted the work planned for the left side of the square, leaving buildings of various periods and heights to survive.

The building is distinguished by its vaulted basement and its interior distribution, organised around a central corridor and an integrated staircase. The anterior facade, made of cut stone, is adorned with recast bosses on the ground floor, typical of classical architecture. Only the facade on the square and the roof were protected by a registration order under the Historic Monuments in 1937. Today, the building belongs to a private company, without any indication of its accessibility to the public.

This project is part of a desire for urban modernization in Besançon, marked by the reconstruction of the St. Peter's church and the harmonization of facades around the square. Bertrand's intervention reflects the urbanism of the Enlightenment, combining classical aesthetics and functionality. The Place du Huit-Septembre, a former religious and social heart, thus preserves the traces of this architectural transition between the Ancient Regime and the Revolution.

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