Founded in 1821, since 1980 the museum has been housed in the Pavillon des Officiers, an 18th-century building featuring typical Franche-Comté architecture. The museum houses three collections : archaeology, historical art and contemporary art.
The archaeology section is devoted to archaeological finds in the Jura, from the Neolithic to Merovingian period.
The historical art collection demonstrates the prosperity of Dole, the capital of Comté, a province of Spain until 1678. It is arranged chronologically around various themes (landscape, still life, religious and mythological scenes) : Burgundian and Franche-Comté art from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, 17th/18th century French painting (Vouet, Allegrain, Coypel), the Italian school (Mulinari, Castello, Beinaschi, Assereto) and Northern European school (Master of Saint Giles, Gysbrechts, van Boucle), together with a 19th century collection largely devoted to the Barbizon school and Franche-Comté landscape painters (Courbet, Pointelin, Brun).
The contemporary art collection contains the works of artists working in France from the 1960s, centred around Narrative Figuration (Rancillac, Monory, Télémaque, Erró, Fromanger, etc.), New Realism (César, Arman, Spœrri, Hains, Villéglé, etc.), but also focusing on young figurative artists (Pei-Ming, Tursic & Mille, Raguénès, etc.).
Free admission for all throughout the year.