Cathédrale St-Jean Besançon

The earliest parts of Besançon's cathedral date to 1127. Though heavily modified in ensuing centuries, following a 13th-century fire and the collapse of its bell tower in 1724, Romanesque capitals still sit atop its interior columns. On the wall hangs La Vierge aux Saints (1512), painted by Italian Renaissance virtuoso Fra Bartolomeo; flick the switch to illuminate it. The cathedral’s best-known treasure is its astronomical clock.