Things to See in Mont-de-Marsan

Mont-de-Marsan is the prefecture of the Landes département and a Gascon city whose old centre was shaped by water. The Midou and Douze meet here to form the Midouze, while streets, surviving fortifications and the former river port recall the medieval settlement. The city’s cultural life is equally visible in its sculpture museum, civic buildings and Madeleine traditions.

The old town and its rivers

Mont-de-Marsan developed in the Middle Ages around the Midou, Douze and Midouze. It was then a fortified town, and several parts of that history can still be read in the centre. Donjon Lacataye, a section of the old ramparts, medieval lanes and Romanesque houses remain within the historic fabric. The former river port dates from the thirteenth century.

The confluence gives the town a clear geographical focus. Beside it are a former flour mill converted into an art gallery and the neoclassical Rotonde de la Vignotte, protected as a historic monument since 1986. The bridge aligned with Boulevard F. de Candau looks towards the meeting of the rivers, the banks of the Midou and the quays of the old port.

Sculpture and civic architecture

Donjon Lacataye contains the Musée Despiau-Wlérick. Its collection numbers more than 1,000 works of modern figurative sculpture, with a particular emphasis on the 1930s. Bourdelle and Zadkine are among the artists represented. The museum is dedicated to Charles Despiau and Robert Wlérick, two sculptors closely associated with its identity.

The neoclassical Hôtel de Ville became the town hall in 1946. It had previously accommodated an officers’ club, a savings bank and the municipal museum. The building has cut-stone walls, a slate roof and sculptures by Jean-Éloi Ducom representing Heracles, Athena and Theseus.

The Madeleine church, market and park

The present Église de la Madeleine occupies the site of two earlier churches, one Romanesque and the other a sixteenth-century Gothic building. Its neoclassical pediment recalls the Madeleine church in Paris. Inside, the marble high altar is by the Mazetti brothers, while a fresco by Madame Grimard-Baudet is dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene.

The Saint-Roch food market centres on produce from the Landes. Parc Jean Rameau, formerly known as La Pépinière, was first used to cultivate Landes pine and became a public garden in 1947. It now bears the name of Jean Rameau, a novelist and poet born in the region.

Set within a bend of the Douze, the park includes Japanese, hydrangea and fern gardens. Its collection also contains 80 different species of tree.

The Fêtes de la Madeleine

The Fêtes de la Madeleine are central to Mont-de-Marsan’s festive identity. The celebration has a marked Spanish influence: participants traditionally dress in blue and white, gather in bodegas and casetas, and attend events in the streets and at the arena. Music, dancing, cultural displays and activities for children form part of the programme, which traditionally ends with fireworks in the city’s colours.