Mont-de-Marsan (; Occitan: ''Lo Mont de Marçan'') is a commune and capital of the

Landes ''Landes'', or ''Lanas'' in Gascon, means moorland or heath. ''Landes'' and ''Lanas'' come from the Latin ''plānus'' meaning “‘flat, even, level, plain’”. They are therefore cognate with the English plain (and plane), the Spanish word '' ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France.INSEE commune file
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Population

Military installations

The French Air and Space Force operates the '' Constantin Rozanoff'' Mont-de-Marsan Air Base about 2 kilometres north of the town. The base includes CEAM (the French air force military experimentation and trials organisation), an air defense radar command reporting centre and an air defence control training site. Mont-de-Marsan Air Base was formerly home to France's first operational squadron of nuclear bombers, the Dassault Mirage IVA.

Sights

* The Donjon Lacataye is the keep of a 14th-century castle * Despiau-Wlérick Museum (1930s sculpture by two local artists) * Dubalen Museum * Marechal Foch's equestrian statue

Culture

Stade Montois Club Omnisports is the city's main sports club:

Stade Montois rugby Stade Montois Rugby is a French rugby union team that currently is playing in Pro D2, the second level of the country's professional league system. They were founded in 1908 and play in yellow and black. They are based in Mont-de-Marsan, t ...

and Stade Montois football are especially well-known. The city has around 9,000 sports licensees, which represents nearly 30% of its total population. Two historic punk rock music festivals were held in Mont-de-Marsan's bullring in 1976 and 1977. The Festival Arte Flamenco international festival was established 1989 in Mont-de-Marsan by the council of the Landes department and is the largest Flamenco festival outside of Spain.

Personalities

Joël Bats Joël Bats (born 4 January 1957) is a French former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He spent his entire senior club career in his native France, appearing in a total of 553 competitive club matches and 504 Division 1 matche ...

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

goalkeeper (1957 – ) * Patrick Biancone,

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...

trainer, (1952 – ) *

Pierre Bosquet Pierre François Joseph Bosquet (8 November 18105 February 1861) was a French Army general. He served during the French conquest of Algeria and in the Crimean War of 1853-1856; returning from Crimea he was made a Marshal of France and a Senator ...

, Marshal of France, (1810–1861) * Thomas Castaignède,

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

footballer, (1975 – ) *

Charles Despiau Charles Despiau (November 4, 1874 – October 28, 1946) was a French sculptor. Early life Charles-Albert Despiau was born at Mont-de-Marsan, Landes and attended first the École des Arts Décoratifs and later the École nationale supérieure d ...

, sculptor, (1874–1946) * Pierre Gensous, trade unionist, (1925–2017) *

Alain Juppé Alain Marie Juppé (; born 15 August 1945) is a French politician. A member of The Republicans (France), The Republicans, he was Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac, during which period he faced 1995 strikes ...

, politician and former Prime Minister of France, (1945 – ) *

Gaëtan Laborde Gaëtan Laborde (born 3 May 1994) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Nice. He represented the France national youth teams up to France U20 level. Club career Laborde started his career at Stade Montoi ...

, association football player, (1994 - ) * Romain Larrieu, association football goalkeeper (1976 – ) * Louis-Anselme Longa, painter, (1809–1869) *

Abdoulaye Loum Abdoulaye Loum (born 3 April 1991) is a French professional basketball player for Metropolitans 92 of the LNB Pro A The LNB Pro A, currently known for sponsorship reasons as Betclic Élite, is the top-tier men's professional basketball league ...

, basketball player * Jean van de Velde, golfer, (1966 – ) * Fabien Vehlmann, comics writer, (1972 – ) * Genevieve Darrieussecq, the mayor of Mont-de-Marsan (2008–2017) and since 2017 Secretary of State to the Minister of the Armed Forces, (1956 – )

International relations

Mont-de-Marsan is twinned with: *

Tudela, Navarre Tudela is a municipality in Spain, the second largest city of the autonomous community of Navarre and twice a former Latin bishopric. Its population is around 35,000. The city is sited in the Ebro valley. Fast trains running on two-track electrif ...

, Spain *

Alingsås Alingsås () is a locality and the seat of Alingsås Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 24,482 inhabitants in 2010. Geography Geographically the city is situated by the outlet of the small rivulet Säveån into lake Mjö ...

, Sweden

Climate

References

External links

Official website
(in English) Communes of Landes (department) Prefectures in France {{Landes-geo-stub