musée du temps english version

Le Temps brise les ailes de l'Amour.
Toile de Charles-Louis Landon (1760-1826).
Huiles sur Bois.


french version


The time museum at Besançon was created through the merging at the clockmaking collections at Besançon's Fine Arts Museum and its Musum at History. Their Themes unite in a museum wich is more thoroughly able to study the relationship between mankind and the measurement, representation, and exploraton af time. The museum also preserves the technical and industrial savoir faire embodied in clockmaking and its heritage.

The visitor is led through the corridors surronding the central courtyard of Palais Granvelle beginning with an entirely historical section about the town, the region, and its specialities ; and then continuing to a level devoted solely to the measurement of time. This part traces the history of time measurement from the dependancy upon natural phenomon to the transformation to "artificial" time. The hour has been used from the moment of this development, and since then we have become technologicaly, economically, and socially dependant upon our ability to measure time.

Focusing on the 20th century, the second floor offers visitors a thought-provoking study of time multiplication, the necessity for the establishement of time zones and relativity. The exhibit follows the evolution of clockmaking techniques from caesium electricity to electronics; Here the key figures in the century are introduced from clockmakers to physicists and engineers, including, of course, Einstein. The next room is dedicated to social time, after which one is submerged in the complete absence of time. Finally, the large attic of Palais Granvelle brings the visitor to the conclusion of the tour. It serves as place of meditation and reflection, but also a return to the city through the sound of its lively activity below.

The Time Museum will be open to the public in part by the end of 1998.

Time will finally have its PALACE !

 



© Sami BADAOUI, Franche-Comté Net, Mars 1996