MONTBELIARD, a town of eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Doubs, 49 m. N.E. of Besancon on the P.L.M. line between that town and Belfort. Pop. (1931), 12,089. Montbeliard stands at the confluence of the Luzine and the Allaine. Forts on outlying hills connect it with Belfort on the one side and (through Blamont and the Lomont fortifications) with Besancon on the other. The castle of the counts of Montbeliard was rebuilt in 1751, but the Tour Bossue and the Tour Neuve, dating from 1425 and 1594, are preserved. Most of the inhabitants are Protestant, and the church of St. Martin, built early in the 17th century, now serves as a Protestant place of worship. The old market-hall and some old houses of the 16th century also remain. Montbeliard is the seat of a sub-prefect and has a board of trade arbitrators, a chamber of arts and manu factures and a museum of natural history.
After 187o a considerable impetus was given to its pros perity by Alsatian immigrants. Its industries include watch and clock making and dependent trades, cotton spinning and weaving, the manufacture of hosiery, textile machinery, furniture, spare parts for motor cars, tools, nails and wire and brewing. There is
commerce in wine, cheese, wood and Montbeliard cattle.
After belonging to the Burgundians and Franks, Montbeliard (Mons Peligardi) was, by the treaty of Verdun (843), added to Lorraine. In the 1 1 th century it became the capital of a count ship, which formed part of the second kingdom of Burgundy and latterly of the German Empire. Its German name is Mompelgard. In 1397 it passed by marriage to the house of Wurttemberg, to whom it belonged till 1793. It resisted the attacks of Charles the Bold (1473), and Henry I. of Lorraine (1587 and 1588), duke of Guise, but was taken in 1676 by Marshal Luxemburg, who razed its fortifications. The tolerance of the princes of Wiirttem berg attracted to the town at the end of the 16th century a colony of Anabaptists from Frisia. In 1793 the inhabitants volun tarily submitted to annexation by France. In 1871 the battle of the Lisaine between the French and Germans was fought in the neighbourhood and partly within the walls.