The Granvelle palace is a 16th century Renaissance palace in Besançon in the Doubs region of Burgundy-Franche-Comté. Between 1534 and 1547, Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle had his palace built in the Grande rue de Besançon, symbolizing his power as keeper of the seals of the Emperor Charles V and his social ascension.
The Granvelle family accumulated within these walls over the years magnificent collections of paintings, antiques and books which were dispersed from the end of the 16th century and part of which formed the primitive collection of the municipal library and the Museum of Fine Arts.
After the second French conquest of Franche-Comté by Louis XIV, the palace became the residence of the provincial governor. It was one of them, the Duke of Tallard, who installed a theater in the buildings in 1740, then the Academy of Sciences, Belles-Lettres and Arts of Besançon in 1752.
The palace was sold as a national asset during the French Revolution, and bought back by the municipality in 1864, to become the Franche-Comté History Museum after the Second World War.
The Granvelle Palace was restored in 2002. Since then, it has been home to the Museum of Time.
