Mont-de-Marsan (;

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language Occitan (; o ...

: ''Lo Mont de Marçan'') is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

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 Nouvelle-Aquitaine (; oc, Nòva Aquitània or ; eu, Akitania Berria; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Novéle-Aguiéne'') is the largest administrative region in France, spanning the west and southwest of the mainland. The region was created by t ...

, southwestern France.INSEE commune file
/ref>

Population

Military installations

The

French Air and Space Force The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Army; ...

operates the ''

Constantin Rozanoff Constantin Wladimir Rozanoff, also known as Kostia Rozanoff, (russian: Розанов, Константин Владимирович; 23 August 1905 – 3 April 1954 was a French test pilot, a colonel of the French Air Force, and one of the pio ...

Mont-de-Marsan Air Base Mont-de-Marsan Air Base (French: Base aérienne 118 Mont-de-Marsan) (ICAO: LFBM) is a front-line French Air and Space Force (Armée de l'air et de l'espace) (ALAE) fighter base located approximately 2 km north of Mont-de-Marsan, in the Lande ...

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 IV The Dassault Mirage IV was a French supersonic strategic bomber and deep-reconnaissance aircraft. Developed by Dassault Aviation, the aircraft entered service with the French Air Force in October 1964. For many years it was a vital part of the ...

Sights

* The

Donjon Lacataye The Donjon Lacataye is the keep of a 14th-century castle, constructed by order of Gaston Phébus in the ''commune'' of Mont-de-Marsan in the Landes ''département'' of France. Today, it houses the Musée Despiau-Wlérick. Ancien Donjon de Lacata ...

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, the ...

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 Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...

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 ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

(1957 – ) *

Patrick Biancone Patrick Louis Biancone (born June 7, 1952 in Mont-de-Marsan, Landes, France) is a Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. He is currently based in the United States, but enjoyed success in both Europe and Hong Kong earlier in his career. He was the head ...

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 Thomas Castaignède (born 21 January 1975) is a rugby union footballer from Mont-de-Marsan. Born in Mont-de-Marsan, Aquitaine, Castaignède played as a junior and senior for Stade Montois in various positions, initially as Fly-half (rugby union), ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

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 de ...

, sculptor, (1874–1946) *

Pierre Gensous Pierre Gensous (25 July 1925 – 2 December 2017) was a French trade unionist. Born in Mont-de-Marsan, Gensous became a metalworker, and joined his trade union. In 1945, he also joined the French Communist Party (PCF). In 1953, Gensous was s ...

, trade unionist, (1925–2017) *

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

, politician and former

Prime Minister of France The prime minister of France (french: link=no, Premier ministre français), officially the prime minister of the French Republic, is the head of government of the French Republic and the leader of the Council of Ministers. The prime minister ...

, (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 Montois ...

, association football player, (1994 - ) *

Romain Larrieu Romain Larrieu (born 31 August 1976) is a French former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, most notably in the Football League for Plymouth Argyle. He started his career at Montpellier in 1994. After failing to make an appearanc ...

, association football goalkeeper (1976 – ) *

Louis-Anselme Longa Louis-Anselme Longa (4 April 1809 – 13 December 1869) was a French genre artist in the Academic style. He also created numerous church paintings, but is best known for his Orientalist works. Biography He studied design in Paris with Paul Del ...

, painter, (1809–1869) * Abdoulaye Loum, basketball player * Jean van de Velde, golfer, (1966 – ) *

Fabien Vehlmann Fabien Vehlmann (born 30 January 1972) is a French comics writer best known for ''Green Manor'' and ''Seuls''. Yvan Delporte dubbed him "The René Goscinny of the third millennium". Biography Fabien Vehlmann, born in 1972 in Mont-de-Marsan, gre ...

, comics writer, (1972 – ) *

Genevieve Darrieussecq Genevieve (french: link=no, Sainte Geneviève; la, Sancta Genovefa, Genoveva; 419/422 AD – 502/512 AD) is the patroness saint of Paris in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Her feast is on 3 January. Genevieve was born in Nanterre an ...

, 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 Mjörn ...

, Sweden

Climate

References

External links

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