MONTBLIARD

town, Doubs dpartement, Franche-Comt region, eastern France, between the Vosges and the Jura mountains, 11 mi (17 km) from the Swiss frontier. In a highly industrialized area at the confluence of the Allaine and Luzine rivers, it lies north of the Canal du Rhne au Rhin and of a loop in the Doubs River. The town is known to have been in existence in the 8th century. The lordship of Montbliard became a countship in the 12th century, after which Montbliard came into the possession of the dukes of Wrttemberg, who administered it from the end of the 14th century until the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century. Montbliard's industry consists primarily of automobile manufacture, the Peugeot company employing more than two-thirds of the economically active. The chteau of the counts of Montbliard, on a rocky promontory dominating the town, has towers dating from the 15th and 16th centuries; it houses a museum of natural history and (in an 18th-century extension) an art museum. Pop. (1982) 31,174.