A project over 4 million euros

She could not hide her happiness on Thursday morning, at the opening of the press conference organized for the occasion: even Anne Vigno, EELV Mayor of Besançon, recognized a certain “emotion”. The botanical garden she ran from 2006 to 2014 is in fact part of her history — even the origin of her political commitment since she spent more than 15 years, when she was a research engineer at CNRS. chrono-environment lab, approached several local actors and in particular a certain Eric Alauzet who was then a green elect.

It was 2005: at the time, recalls Anne Vigno, the Botanical Garden, which had been set up in Place Leclerc for decades, was doomed to disappear in the short term: “Some thought that botany was a science of the nineteenth century that no longer had its place in the 21st century. We told ourselves that such important equipment could not have been left behind.”

Seventeen years later, the Besançon Botanical Garden is preparing to turn a new page in its history. In fact, a new site will come out of the ground on the campus of La Bouloie, next to La Fabrikà, 3,000 square meters of outdoor flowerbeds and about 1,000 square meters of greenhouses (twice the area of ​​the Place Leclerc). A new facility where visitors will be able to discover a number of medicinal, desert or even carnivorous plants, two ponds of aquatic plants, an exceptional collection of tropical orchids or even a reconstruction of the Guiana forest.

Scheduled opening in September 2024

The greenhouse construction site, launched last month, should last a year: it will then be necessary to develop paths, plant beds, and create a cycle path connecting the park to IUT and UFR science and technology. Le calendrier prévisionnel prévoit ensuite, de juin 2023 à août 2024, le déménagement et l’installation des collections botaniques, soit des milliers de plantes qui ont été conservées à l’Orangerie municipale depuis la la fermeture du quarc site il years .

Project value: 4.2 million euros, financed by the region (1.15 million euros), the University of Franche-Comté (one million euros), the European Union, the city of Besançon (700,000 euros) and the administration (500,000 euros).

Therefore, the new botanical garden, inheriting a long history, should open its doors in two years, in September 2024. It will be part of the baptized group Jardin des Sciences, which also includes the Fabrikà (a space for science discovery and research) and the Science and Cosmos Observatory located right next door.

In short, a vast area of ​​several hectares dedicated to scientific culture (and thus to exchanges between researchers and the general public) which will be led by the garden team (ie eight people), the University’s Department of Science, Arts and Culture from Franche Comte and the observatory team. “The Science Garden will find its place in the heart of the campus,” summarizes Masha Warnoff, President of Franche-Comté University. It will become a symbolic place for the university. »