Exhibition "Le Doubs en terrain connu?

The Doubs, familiar territory? The new exhibition at the Departmental Archives invites visitors to rediscover the region and its history, from 27 November 2025 to 3 July 2026.

With its 8 m² of rough plaster, the relief map of the Doubs produced in 1877 catches the eye from the outset: medium-sized mountains, plateaux and valleys are outlined in three dimensions at the centre of the exhibition. Around it, around a hundred documents - maps, plans, registers, photographs - make up Le Doubs, en terrain connu? illustrating the region and its history.

Divided into four sections - air, water, earth and fire - the exhibition invites visitors to (re)discover the region, particularly from unexpected angles. The earth recalls the creation of the Doubs and the gradual construction of its identity, while the air leads from the sanatorium at Villers-le-Lac to the hymn of the Saugeais and the smell of Morteau and Montbéliard sausages. The water evokes the source of the Doubs, while the fire opens onto the industrial history of the Montbéliard region...

"Our subjects are chosen collectively to showcase the richness of our holdings and surprise the public by telling the story of the département in a different way," explains the Archives' deputy director. Among the major items on display are a 1790 map showing the creation of the département, and the first register of deliberations of the General Council. "I'm proud of the outreach work carried out by the teams at the archives, which enables the treasures of our past and our culture to be passed on to numerous associations and schoolchildren, as was the case for the LIP exhibition," says Monique Choux, County Councillor for Besançon 1.