\b0 In the seventeenth century, Besanτon, in a wonderful position on a bend of the river Doubs, becam
e the capital of the Franche-ComtΘ, then a possession of the Habsburgs. A relic of this time is the \i Palais Granvelle\i0 , named after the chancellor of Emperor Charles V and a fine building in the Renaissance style. After it became French, the city wa
s fortified by Vauban, who built a powerful fortress here. Besanτon also has an exceptional Museum of Fine Arts with works by Bellini, Cranach, Rubens, Courbet, and many others. It can also boast of being the birthplace of \b \ATXul1024 \cf4 \ATXht476 Vi
ctor Hugo\b0 \ATXul0 \cf0 \ATXht0 and the LumiΦre brothers, the inventors of cinematography.\par
