Porrentruy

Porrentruy is the second-largest commune of the canton of Jura with 6,700 inhabitants and main town of the Porrentruy district.

Some history
Porrentruy was granted a city charter by Rudolf von Habsburg in the thirteenth century. From then on, the city served as the summer residence and from the beginning of the sixteenth century as the permanent residence of the prince-bishop of Basel. At the end of the sixteenth century, Bishop Jacob Cristoph Blarer von Wartensee rebuilt the palace which had been damaged in a fire and established a highly-respected Jesuit school. Today, these buildings house the canton’s college, the Lycée cantonal. Noteworthy buildings such as the Hôtel de ville, the Hôtel des Halles, the Hôtel-Dieu and the Gléresse Mansion were also constructed in the eighteenth century.

The castle
The castle which dates back to the thirteenth century today serves as an administration building for the canton - it is the court house. There are impressive Renaissance buildings on the expansive grounds around the castle. The Princess Christine of Saxony Pavilion was built in the Regency Style at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

Jura Museum of Natural Sciences and the Botanic Gardens
The Musée jurassien des sciences naturelles (natural science museum) in Porrentruy exhibits Jurassic fossils, some of which can well be described as ground-breaking in the history of paleontology.
The Botanical Gardens which are part of the museum are almost 200 years old. The beautiful surroundings are the perfect showplace for the various aspects of the plant life; one section is devoted to the flora found in the Jura region.

Paléojura
150 million-year-old dinosaur tracks have been discovered in the Courtedoux region. This experience and journey of discovery is one of the most significant throughout Switzerland and Europe as a whole. Stone slates, distributed on six archaeological sites, show over 13'000 tracks and traces of theropods, two-legged carnivores, sauropods and four-legged herbivores that once lived along the shores of the Jurassic sea. Some traces even indicate that part of these species were up to 30 meters long. And in addition to the footprints of dinosaurs, and turtle and crocodile fossils, a variety of molluscs supply essential knowledge about the climate and enviromental conditions pertaining to the era.

Guided tour:
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