Franche-Comté

Region of eastern France; area 16,202 sq km/6,256 sq mi; population (1999 est) 1,117,100. Its administrative centre is Besançon, and it includes the départements of Doubs, Jura, Haute-Saône, and Territoire de Belfort (see Belfort, Territoire de). About 40% of the land is forested, especially in the mountainous Jura, where there is dairying, farming, and forestry; elsewhere there are engineering, automobile, and plastics industries. Besançon is the region's largest city and traditional centre for manufacturing (watches and precision instruments). Other chief towns include Montbéliard, the site of an automobile production complex, Lons-le-Saulier, Vesoul, Pontarlier, and Dôle, which had been capital of the historic region until 1676.

History

Known to the Romans as Maxima Sequanorum, Franche-Comté was detached from Burgundy in 843 and became part of the German (Holy Roman) empire in 1032. The emperor Charles V gave it to the Spanish branch of his family before it finally became French.